Apple Pay competitor CurrentC acknowledges data breach

Although Mercantile Exchange's CurrentC has yet to become available for wide release, it looks like they have run into a security issue in the form of breach resulting in exposed email addresses.

In a recent iOS update, Apple enabled its mobile payment platform, Apple Pay. While there has been opposition to Apple's mobile payment system from Mercantile Exchange (MCX), creators of CurrentC, it looks they might be having some troubles of their own even before the service is set to launch in 2015.

According to CNBC, within the last 36 hours, CurrentC has experienced a breach. This has resulted in email addresses being compromised of current pilot program participants and those who expressed interest in the application. MCX has stated that most of the compromised accounts were dummy addresses specifically created for testing purposes; the CurrentC application itself remains secure.

While data privacy has become a huge concern over the past year, MCX and CurrentC have a lot riding on the mobile payment platform that is a direct competitor to Apple Pay. The payment system is backed by MCX which is comprised from over a dozen merchants that have over 100,000 locations. Unlike Apple Pay, CurrentC attempts to cut out the middle man and negates fees charged to merchants from credit card companies. The payment system is backed by Walmart, BestBuy, Lowe's, and more.

Currently, CurrentC is slated to launched sometime in 2015. Apple Pay is available now by updating either an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to the latest version of iOS.

Source: CNBC