When Apple Pay officially launched earlier this week with the release of iOS 8.1, many rushed to local participating retailers to be among the first to use their iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus as a mobile wallet. Early reviews peg it as easy to use and incredibly convenient.

But before we herald it as the future of mobile payments — requiring just a tap of your thumb at checkout to pay for items — is it secure to use? After all, massive data breaches happen all the time. Just this month, contact information of 76 million households was compromised in a cyberattack on JP Morgan Chase, and we're all too familiar with the heavily publicized breaches, aimed specifically at credit cards, at Target and Home Depot.

Despite worries about someone stealing your phone or it being susceptible to hackers, experts say Apple Pay actually adds significant security to your payment transactions, even more than traditional credit cards.

To start, Apple Pay uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to allow iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners to pay for items by holding their phones in front of payment terminals. It uses a variety of security measures to protect your payment data, such as tokenization (more on that in a minute), authentication via fingerprint and a secure method for storing the data.

'Token' payments

Instead of transferring your credit-card information with each transaction, Apple Pay uses a stand-in "token" that's exchanged between your iOS device and the point-of-sale terminal. It's essentially a surrogate for the actual number.

Think of it as your iOS device sharing a code word with the payment terminal. That way, even if someone happens to listen in on that word, it's useless on its own.

"It wouldn't matter if they write it on a billboard," said Andrew Sudbury, co-founder of Abine, a company that designs tools to protect online privacy.

The token works with another security measure called a cryptogram, a number generated specifically for the transaction. The cryptogram uniquely identifies your device to make sure the transaction isn't fraudulent.

Apple is far from the first company to use token payments — security experts have been pushing for a widespread adoption of token payments for years, Sudbury said.

Touch ID

Other mobile payment platforms, like Google Wallet, use token-like systems too, but Apple Pay transactions work with the iPhones' Touch ID fingerprint sensors to authenticate purchases. In order to complete a transaction, users need to put their fingerprint on the device's sensor to verify they are who they say they are.

James Anderson, MasterCard's senior vice president for mobile product development, told Mashable that those three elements are supposed to work together: the token number, the cryptogram and your fingerprint. Your fingerprint acts as the go-ahead for the other two elements. MasterCard is one of the early adopters of Apple Pay and is making it easy for customers to understand how it works and know where to find retailers nearby that accept the payment option. It recently launched an app called MasterCard Nearby that addresses those questions.

It should be noted that it's possible to use Apple Pay with a backup code in lieu of Touch ID, though the fingerprint function is considered an integral part of the platform. You can't set up Apple Pay without using it.

Although it's possible to lift someone else's fingerprint, stealing fingerprints is a time-consuming process and harder than it seems.

But Sudbury, of Abine, thinks fingerprints are an overestimated protection, and Touch ID shouldn't be seen as an impenetrable security measure. Unlike a password or PIN, you cannot change your fingerprint, Sudbury said. If someone lifts your print, they have that access for good. He said it's "dangerous" to rely on fingerprints as real security.

Secure element for information storage

All sensitive material — like your device's unique account number and your fingerprint — are stored on what's called a secure element, a segregated portion of your phone that isn't part of the iOS system. It can't be easily accessed, so it shouldn't be vulnerable to hacking.

It's along the same lines as the "chip" found in EMV cards, but Satnam Narang, a senior security response manager at Symantec, called it "definitely unparalleled" in its security. You don't even actually store your credit card number on the smartphone.

By contrast, Google Wallet houses its "secure element" virtually in the cloud. PayPal and Softcard (which is backed by wireless carriers) also use the secure element on devices, but only Apple has a complete hold on the hardware and software in its mobile payment ecosystem, a potentially decisive advantage.

Really impenetrable?

It remains to be seen how widespread of an impact Apple Pay will eventually have, especially since it's currently only available to people with the latest versions of the iPhone. As of now, Apple Pay is only usable at 220,000 merchant locations in the U.S., just 2% of the country's 12-15 million retailers that accept cards, according to Consumer Reports.

Chip or EMV cards — which look like regular cards but have a more-secure chip instead of a magnetic strip — add an extra bit of protection to payment transactions, but they are not yet ubiquitous in the U.S. They're expected to become mainstream in fall 2015, but Apple Pay, with its three-layer security, is perhaps even better.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't be conscious of payment safety, said Avivah Litan, a security analyst at Gartner.

"It's much more secure than a card, even an EMV. It's really as secure as it can get," Litan said. "That doesn't mean it can't be broken."

Apple Pay is still just getting its footing as it launches into the market. Some have already reported that they've been charged twice while using Apple Pay.

Like all payment methods, Apple Pay isn't perfect, Litan said, and it's too soon to tell how threats may adapt to the beefed-up security measures. Regardless, she expects mobile payments to forever change the we pay for things.

Buttressed by its many security features, Apple Pay could be the long-awaited agent that powers that change.

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