If a payment terminal could be forced into servitude as a crude handheld gaming device, what else could it be made to do?

ENGADGET: Security experts hack payment terminals to steal credit card info, play games

DeviceFidelity, Inc. today announced the availability of its In2PayTM solution for iPhone, designed to enable iPhone users to make contactless transactions, such as Visa mobile payments, by simply waving the iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal.

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Now they are increasing their focus on technology consumers can use to make purchases by simply entering a password or other easy-to-remember information on an e-commerce website, or by tapping a smartphone against a merchant payment terminal instead of swiping a physical card.

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It will only be offered to people living in New York and San Francisco at first -- though the phone can be used as payment anywhere there's a MasterCard terminal.

CNN: Mark Milian

Finally, the security gurus took a device popular in the US, and used non-encrypted ethernet communication between the terminal and other peripherals to hack into the payment device and take root control.

ENGADGET: Security experts hack payment terminals to steal credit card info, play games

According to Jeffrey Green of PaymentsSource, Atlas Payment Processing in San Jose, California and Maxx Payment Processing in Denver, Colorado both offer a way to use payment cards for in-person transactions via a PIN-based countertop terminal.

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The mobile payment system allows the use of any smartphone or iPad as a point-of-sale terminal and is aimed at small businesses.

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