In early March, WikiLeaks revealed the Vault 7 papers, allegedly an insight into CIA techniques. However, their unveiling created a commotion in the security community, particularly when it comes to payments.

"2017 has already proven to be an entertaining and enlightening year on the payments and transactions front," Jon Ungerland, cofounder of the Aurora, Colo.-based mobile transaction platform provider DaLand Solutions. However, he added, it's also been intriguing as concerns, and public and political debates, over cyberwarfare, hacking, information security, dragnet surveillance, wiretapping, and a myriad of other personal data privacy and security topics.

On Mar 7, WikiLeaks released a series of documents it called Vault 7. According to WikiLeaks the top-secret documents revealed how intelligence personnel can exploit and gain access to an extensive array of devices such as network routers, web browsers, cell phones and smart TVs. "In short, the documents detail engineering designs and paths to access or control virtually any internet connected device to spy on you (or monitor what you're doing)," Ungerland explained.