Washington – The payment application LoopPay owned by the South Korean company Samsung Electronics, suffered a breach in March by a group of government-affiliated Chinese hackers, known as the “Codoso Group” or “Sunshock Group.”

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The Chinese hacker group remained inside LoopPay’s network for five months before they were noted. Credit: Youtube

Will Grayling, LoopPay’s CEO and co-general manager of Samsung Pay said that security experts were still looking through LoopPay’s systems, but “There had been no indication that the hackers infiltrated Samsung’s system or that consumer data had been exposed,” the New York Times reported.

The events

The attack did not affect the specific system that manages the payments, so the data from the LoopPay’s users was not compromised. On the other hand, LoopPay executives believe that the Chinese hackers were seeking for technology behind the payment system.

The technology that allows the payment system send payment information via an encrypted magnetic signal known as a magnetic secure transmission (MST) sent from a coil built into the phone itself, which is a key part of the Samsung Pay mobile payment wallet, according to The Verge.

The payment company did not learn of the breach until August when an organization came across LoopPay’s data while tracking the Chinese group of hackers in a separate investigation. This means the hackers were inside LoopPay’s network for five months before they were noted.

Also, security experts have stated that the Codoso Group modus operandi is to plant hidden back doors across victim’s systems in order to keep the infiltration in their networks for a long period after the initial breach.

However, both LoopPay and Samsung have made clear that none of their users are at any risk. “Both LoopPay and Samsung executives said they were confident that they had removed infected machines, and that customer payment information and data were not affected. They added that there was no need to delay the introduction of Samsung Pay, which had its debut in the United States last week after executing more than $30 million worth of purchases in South Korea,” the New York Times reported.

Source: The New York Times