Micropayments are very small-value transactions designed to complete quickly and with minimal processing fees. They are common in payment apps, digital content, transport, and point-of-sale systems where low friction matters more than high transaction value.
In cyber security, micropayments matter because attackers often target systems that handle many fast, low-value payments. Fraudsters may use bots for card testing, exploit weak authentication, abuse refund flows, or try to hide losses in a stream of tiny transactions. Defenders reduce that risk with rate limiting, transaction monitoring, device hardening, strong access controls, and settlement checks. On connected POS terminals, micropayments still depend on the same trusted endpoint, network, and banking controls as larger payments.