Superdrug, one of Britain’s largest beauty and health retailers, has introduced contactless payment for its in-store customers, according to Retail Gazette.

Created by Streamline and Visa Europe, the contactless system will enable customers to make payments of up to £15 (approx. USD $23) by simply waving their contactless bank card at the more than 50 participating Superdrug stores in London and Liverpool.

Continua Health Alliance, an industry organization of health care and technology companies, is teaming up with the NFC Forum to expand NFC connectivity technology in the health IT industry.

Collis has announced that its Terminal Function Test Tool (FTT) has been qualified to implement Interac Association’s “Reader Terminal Interoperability and Confidence Test Guide.”

According to Collis, the Terminal FTT incorporates all the tests specified in the guide, which is designed to ensure that a terminal supporting both contact and contactless interfaces is compliant with the Dual Interface (DI) specifications put forth by Interac.

A variant of malware called Sykipot is circulating that purportedly enables it to hijack U.S. Defense Department Common Access Cards and Windows smart cards, according to Alien Vault Labs. This variant, which appears to have been put together in March 2011, has been seen in dozens of attack samples from the past year.