The mobile point of sale (POS) market is expected to grow by 49 percent each year until 2020, according to a new report released by Technavio that analyzed mobile POS shipments worldwide, as well as sales of smartphones, tablets and mobile POS terminals.
The POS terminals, which are attached to mobile devices and used to import a purchaser’s credit card information into the seller’s device are growing quickest in the Americas, where an abundance of small and private retail chains, as well as increased use in the hospitality industry, have forecasters expecting an annual growth rate well above 50 percent by 2020. While the United States is currently driving much of this growth, the continued mobilization of Latin America is expected to increasingly contribute to growth throughout the decade.
This increased use is causing projected market demand on the security side as well. While mobile POS systems provide a boon to many small businesses, the information imported on the seller’s phone can be a rich target for hackers looking to exploit systems that may not be as secure as some of their larger competitors.
One key way companies hope to keep pace with hackers is through increased firewall capabilities and protection. The global web application firewall market is expected to grow by 19 percent over the next three years. That growth is expected to come largely from the banking and finance industry as well as from government as they grapple with how to secure the personal data of millions of people stored in their systems.
The banking sector has faced a particularly aggressive slew of attacks. In the past decade, more than half of the global top 50 banking websites have been targeted by cyber criminals. It is estimated that these attacks will cost the industry more than 1 billion dollars annually, giving financiers plenty of incentive to invest in increased cyber security tactics, including web application firewalls.