Apple Pay: An in-depth look at what's behind the secure payment system
With Apple Pay slated to go live later this month, one can soon expect to see an avalanche of fear mongering from pundits who, like PayPal, will question the wisdom of trusting Apple with user credit card information.
The reality, though, is that Apple Pay is an exceedingly secure mobile payment platform. In fact, it may very well be the safest way to make any type of credit card payment. To understand why, below is a general overview of how the system works behinds the scenes. Note that this article is meant to paint the Apple Pay process in broad strokes, as a good portion of the nitty-gritty technical details aren't yet publicly known and, due to security considerations, may never be fully disclosed.
In putting this post together, I was able to talk to a few individuals involved with the development of Apple Pay who were able to shed a tiny bit of light on Apple's foray into the world of mobile payments. Additionally, a number of the technical aspects of the financial and logistical processes that govern Apple Pay can be gleaned from the EMV Payment Tokenisation Specification Technical Framework which can be downloaded here.
