HELSINKI, February 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent report highlights the
current threat of credit card skimming at ATMs and points of sale. Mike
Barwise and Daniel Bachfeld write, "Figures provided to heise Security by
UK banking trade body APACS show that in the first six months of 2007
skimming fraud accounted for 72.3 million UK pounds, a 37% rise on the 52.8
million lost in the equivalent period in 2006."

    Despite the wide spread adoption of the chip-based card authentication,
fraudulent payouts from skimmed and cloned bank and credit cards are a
common problem.

    The report continues, "... a major failing of many chip-capable ATM
implementations is the option to "fallback" automatically to the readily
copied magnetic strip if a chip is absent or not readable .... Because many
overseas ATMs (not least in the US) cannot cope with chips, the magnetic
strip is unlikely to disappear in the near future. The triumph of
convenience over security strikes again."

    Valimo Wireless' mobile signature solution provides convenient and
effective protection against such skimming and cloning and against other
bank fraud such as phishing and identity theft. Mobile signatures secure
ATM and payment transactions through asymmetric encryption and digital
signatures, using mobile phones as a separate channel.

    Tapio Vailahti, CEO of Valimo says: "Garanti bank and Is Bank in Turkey
already use mobile signatures to service consumer loan customers straight
from their ATM machines without having them enter a branch office. The same
process is a convenient way of securing money withdrawals from those
machines still relying on magnetic stripe information."

    With mobile signatures to add security, for each transaction that
relies on the magnetic stripe, the cardholder would get a signing request
to the mobile phone stating the amount and location of the ATM. The
cardholder then returns a mobile signature via the mobile phone network.
This enables the banking system to establish whether or not this is a
genuine withdrawal request and establishes a legally binding record that
the cardholder approves the pending payout.

    Mobile signatures also work across borders using the same roaming
arrangement for sending international short messages.

    "I encourage financial institutions and mobile operators to investigate
mobile signatures. No other fraud reduction technology is as secure and
convenient, preventing fraud before it happens," explains Tapio Vailahti.

    Valimo is a finalist in the category of Most Innovative Consumer
Application for the GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Awards, sponsored by
Ericsson during the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona.

    Meet Valimo at 3GSM Mobile World Congress, Fira de Barcelona, Spain,
11-14 February 2008, Hall 1 Booth 1 F62, or at Valimo's booth in the Mobile
Innovation Marketplace.

    About Valimo Wireless

    Helsinki-based Valimo Wireless is the leading provider of mobile
signature solutions for mobile operator, bank and corporate customers.

    Valimo's solutions are used by more than 40 European and Middle Eastern
customers to date, assuring protection against various security attacks
like phishing, cost savings thanks to digitalization of various currently
paper-based processes and introduction of new business cases enabled by the
convenient mobile signing capability.

    Valimo is growing strongly with offices in Finland, France, Germany,
Sweden and Turkey.

    For more information about Valimo, please visit http://www.valimo.com

    "Valimo" is a registered trademark of Valimo Wireless Ltd in Finland
and other countries. Copyright (c) 2008 Valimo Wireless Ltd. All rights
reserved.



    Contact: Valimo Wireless
    Tapio Vailahti
    CEO, Valimo
    Tel: +358-9-4365-0080

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