Security Issues in Near Field Communications (NFC)

Near Field Communications (NFC) is a rising technology that enables two devices that are within close proximity to quickly establish wireless contactless communications. It looks intuitively secure enough and various applications like ticketing, mobile payments, access grant etc. are taking advantage of NFC and flooding into the market in recent years. However, is it worth to trust such applications at the risk of leaking the user's private information? This paper surveys NFC vulnerabilities and exploits different kinds of security attacks. Upon surveying related materials, the paper covered possible solutions that could defend against those security threats. Furthermore, attacks and countermeasures evaluation in terms of practicality and cost have been further investigated.