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Samsung: Your Samsung Pay Personal Data Was Not Hacked

The Korean giant moves quickly to allay fears that its recently launched mobile payment service was hacked.
Image: Samsung

The personal data of Samsung Pay users is safe and sound, according to Samsung.

The Korean company was forced this morning to respond to a report in the to a report in the New York Times suggesting that Chinese hackers had earlier this year managed to break into the internal network of LoopPay, the Massachusetts-based startup whose technology forms the backbone of Samsung Pay. The Times reported that the hackers were inside LoopPay's internal network from March until August.

"Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk," Samsung said in a statement. "This was an isolated incident that targeted the LoopPay office network, which is a physically separate network from Samsung Pay."

Samsung Pay launched in late September and is largely similar to Apple Pay and Android Pay, in which users are able to make payments using their Samsung smartphone. Unlike Apple Pay and Android Pay, however, Samsung Pay, via LoopPay's technology, can be used with older credit card readers that are not compatible with NFC, the short-distance radio technology that's typically used in smartphone-based payment systems.

Samsung is believed to have spent around $250 million acquiring LoopPay in February.