Samsung's LoopPay hacked by state-sponsored Chinese group
LoopPay is Samsung's mobile payment systems which allows users to pay for lower-cost items using near-field technology. Samsung bought LoopPay last February for $250m and its advanced technology is the cornerstone of Samsung's mobile wallet 'Samsung Pay'. It is said to have﻿﻿ an advantage over similar systems from Apple and Google in that it can communicate with older systems "by emulating a commonly used magnetic stripe card". It seems that the Chinese state-sponsored Codoso Group hacked LoopPay last March in an attempt to gain access to the company's unique MST ('magnetic secure transmission') technology.  There is no evidence to suggest that the company's payment system or any customer data was hacked.

WASHINGTON — Months before its technology became the centerpiece of Samsung’s new mobile payment system, LoopPay, a small Massachusetts subsidiary of the South Korean electronics giant, was the target of a sophisticated attack by a group of government-affiliated Chinese hackers.

As early as March, the hackers — alternatively known as the Codoso Group or Sunshock Group by those who track them — had breached the computer network of LoopPay, a start-up in Burlington, Mass., that was acquired by Samsung in February for more than $250 million, according to several people briefed on the still-unfolding investigation, as well as Samsung and LoopPay executives.

LoopPay executives said the Codoso hackers appeared to have been after the company’s technology, known as magnetic secure transmission, or MST, which is a key part of the Samsung Pay mobile payment wallet that made its public debut in the United States last week.

Like similar mobile payment systems from Apple and Google, Samsung Pay allows consumers to pay for goods using their Samsung smartphones with so-called near-field communications technology, which uses a wireless signal to send payment information from a phone to newer cash registers. But LoopPay’s MST technology has an advantage: It also works with older payment systems by emulating a commonly used magnetic stripe card.