Samsung Confirms LoopPay Hack But Claims No Client Information Placed at Risk

Samsung's mobile payment systems, which is based on LoopPay technology, has recently been hacked. Fortunately, the tech company has confirmed that none of the customers' information was accessed.

According to The Guardian, the Korean mobile developer company said that their Samsung Pay was "unaffected" despite the confirmed breach on LoopPay by a group of hackers.

The company started LoopPay in February "to underpin the company's Samsung Pay mobile payments system."

The New York Times said that LoopPay became the target of a group of Chinese hackers known as the Codoso Group or Sunshock Group.

It added that the executives of LoopPay have confirmed that the group targeted technology, called magnetic secure transmission (MST), which is considered to be a vital part of the Samsung Pay system.

This mobile payment system allows users to pay for their bills and even groceries through their mobile phones.

The New York Times detailed that the hacker group gained access to LoopPay's corporate network and not the production system which handles the payment, informed LoopPay chief executive Will Graylin.

To address their customers concerns, Samsung has also released a statement, reports the Inquirer.

"The first thing to know is that Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk. This was an isolated incident that targeted the LoopPay office network, which is a physically separate network from Samsung Pay. The LoopPay incident was resolved and had nothing to do with Samsung Pay."

Graylin added that the hack was concentrated on the administrative side of the system.

"It's worth reiterating that the reported incident was related to LoopPay's office network which handles email, file servers and printing within the company. This network is physically separate from the production network that handles payment transactions and run by Samsung," he explained.

Additionally, The New York Times noted that the company had not reported the incident to the authorities since none of the personal data or financial information of their customers were affected.

Graylin also noted that it is not likely that the data accessed will be used to also get into the Samsung Pay system.

Despite the assurance given by Samsung to its customers that no personal or important information were placed at risk, the hack proves that part of the company's system is vulnerable, states Forbes.

"The fact that the hackers didn't get into the payment management technology of LoopPay is extremely important to Samsung, at a time when it's trying to instil confidence in early users of its service," added the same report.