Hello there. Just recently, I purchased a referbished Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra from Amazon which I will be daily driving soon (as soon as it arrives in my hands), and I was thinking of using Samsung Wallet to make credit card transactions easier. That said, I wanted to ask about the security of Samsung Wallet.
Just how secure is Samsung Wallet? I am aware from research the security layers that exist on Samsung Pay itself, but my question regards the wallet itself. Due to their open nature, Android phones are at risk of getting hacked more easily because they can download stuff from the internet. That said, if the phone were to be hacked, could a hacker steal the information off of my Samsung Wallet?
For some context here, no, my phone has never been hacked (I don't download APKs), but I have downloaded MP3s, MP4s, images, and documents from the internet, so if a hidden virus was in one of those, I could potentially fall victim to it. Because of that reason, I always avoid having any sensitive information on any of my devices.
So, back to the main question, just how secure is Samsung Wallet? In case of a virus are my credit cards at risk, or is the app secured in a way where the all my information is exclusively available via the app only? I am aware that every app is vulnerable if a virus digs deep enough, so how does Samsung Wallet compare to competitors? Lastly, how likely do you think it would be for my information to be stolen?
If you know the answer to any of these questions, feel free to answer. I thank you for your time and information, it is truly appreciated.
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How secure is Samsung Wallet?
On top of this, Samsung Knox constantly monitors and helps protect your phone from malware and other threats. Samsung Knox also includes a security design whereby highly sensitive operations and information, such as fingerprint and payment information, are kept on a portion of your mobile phone’s memory known as a “secure environment.” Normal applications or malware would have no access to the information inside it.
What is Samsung Wallet?
Samsung Wallet is the secure, go-everywhere app for your essentials — credit cards, membership cards, and more. All in one spot, all accessible with one swipe. Samsung Wallet includes everything you love about Samsung Pay, but also contains features from Samsung Pass and more.
How does Samsung Wallet protect data?
This process takes place every time you add a payment card. A new token will be generated even if you are attempting to add a card that was recently removed.
The last four digits of the card number will be displayed on the card image in Samsung Wallet to help you manage your cards.
When you make a payment, you will need to authenticate your identity by using your fingerprint or Samsung Wallet PIN before the information can be sent to the payment terminal. The merchant will only receive a token, and your payment information will be kept secure. The token will be sent to the payment network, where it will be decrypted and verified against the information stored in a secure vault on their internal networks. Once authenticated, the payment will be approved and sent back to the merchant. Only the payment network and your bank will have information about the actual card information.
I received this message by Google Play Protect:
Your device is at risk
1 harmful app found. Uninstall harmful app?
Samsung Wallet
This app tries to spy on your personal data, such as SMS messages, photos, audio recordings, or call history.
Uninstall
Is this normal? Is Samsung Wallet an actual spyware?
Edit: I have S23 Ultra. I rarely used Samsung Wallet because I mostly use Google Wallet. I started using Samsjng Wallet recently more often because it's easy to store passwords for apps since the integration of Samsung Pass into Samsung Wallet. The issue is that I understand it has passwords and payment methods that I saved specifically on this app since that is the purpose of the app, however, scanning applications and trying to access data that it doesn't have permission to is not a good sign. I even checked the permissions of the app, and it violated my permissions.
I've contacted local Samsung Support with this issue and this is their response: Hi ... ! Welcome to Samsung. Good of you to send a message, I'm going to help you further. Samsung Wallet is an official Samsung app, so you don't have to worry about strange things happening with your data. If you still have doubts about this, I can forward this to our product specialist for you so he can take a look. Just let me know. Marco
I told them to forward this since this isn't normal at all. Plus, the response itself is only confirming my suspicions.
Edit 2: Now the issue has been fixed, and it doesn't show that it's a harmful app. I don't know how, but yeah. I hope this doesn't happen again.
I've heard the method it uses is more safe than others but I am not quite sure. Thought I'd ask here. Thanks!