Bank tech-trends News
 

December 25 - December 29, 2006

• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Biometric Digest Highlights
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers

Hardware News

If your bank is donating older computers to charity, be sure and wipe out any sensitive files before you hand them over. Of course, reformatting a drive or deleting its partition doesn't truly erase its files, so you will need a special program in order to render an old drive's files unreadable. Fortunately, Darik's Boot and Nuke is a block-erasure utility that is available for free. DBAN overwrites each block on a computer's hard drive several times - up to standard levels specified by the U.S. Department of Defense. If you need help finding a charity, you can turn to Share the Technology (www.sharetechnology.org) which allows you to list computers for donation. 

It is important to note that most charities will not accept very old computers. If you have a museum piece or specialized hardware, a charity may not want it because it is not capable of running modern software. Since some computer components are toxic, you do not want to simply place the hardware in the dumpster. UsedComputer.com lists companies that will recycle old computers and electronics. Because the materials in the computer aren't worth a great deal, some recyclers charge a small fee, but the hazardous materials will be disposed of properly. Another option is Electronics Recycling (www.electronicsrecycling.net) which lists recyclers by state.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report entitled "EFT/ATM Network Procesing Review: Purchasing Services, Building Volume". It is geared towards community banks and provides lots of good information on debit processing, cost differences between PIN-debit and signature-debit transactions, and the impact of rewards programs on issuers, merchants and consumers. We will summarize their findings in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe now.

NCR recently released its latest set of self-service and ATM management tools, known as Gasper Exchange. The package includes three tools: EJ Exchange, Software Exchange and Ad Exchange. Gasper EJ Exchange provides remote electronic journal (EJ) retrieval for mixed-vendor ATM networks. Software Exchange offers the ability to remotely apply software patches and updates to the ATM network. Finally, Gasper Ad Exchange provides a flexible way to distribute advertising campaigns throughout an ATM network. Campaigns can be built using NCR’s APTRA Promote software toolset, and then remotely delivered using Gasper Ad Exchange. 

Looking to increase Brand Recognition and provide members with surcharge free ATMs?

Nationwide Money Services, Inc.’s Branded Cash Program is the answer. Fully endorsed by the VA Credit Union League and the CU 24 Network, our Branded Cash Program provides the ATM equipment, great locations, processing, maintenance, insurance, marketing rights and surcharge free transactions for your members, you only provide the cash and cash services for the ATM just as you would if you owned them. The ATMs look and act like your own, extending your reach or filling out your current market.

Our current CU partners include: AEDC, Beacon, Bronco, Carolina Collegiate, Educators, Freedom First, Food Lion Credit Association, Heritage Trust, Martinsville Dupont, NSWC, Old Hickory, Peoples Advantage, Southeast Financial and US Courthouse.

NMS also offers their ‘ATMs Made Easy’ Program for full service ATM management and placement services if you like the idea of having ATMs, but don’t want the hassle of day to day management and the associated costs for maintenance and unplanned expenses like triple DES.

For more information about the Branded Cash Program contact Bob Colabrese, EVP of Sales & Marketing at:

904-395-1147 or

bob.colabrese@GLXS.biz

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LendingTools.com, a leading application service provider for community banks, announced it has experienced a surge in deployments of its biometric security product that encompasses fingerprint recognition software and fingerprint scanners. LendingTools.com has teamed with DigitalPersona, a leader in fingerprint based biometric security, to place more than 3,000 fingerprint readers with clients in the past 60 days.

Safeguard Internet Banking against Authentication Attacks and Phishing

Today's consumers are demanding financial institutions, and for that matter any organization of any size that provides a logon page to personal and business information, deliver unquestionable security whilst maintaining an ease of use balance.

myBiometrix efficiently meets and exceeds these criteria and that of FFIEC guidelines through our proprietary interface that addresses the needs of both Consumer and Provider in securing transacting online:

   • Authenticating the consumer (verifying who is accessing information by who they are not what they have)
   • Verifying the providers site (ensuring a Phishing episode is not being perpetrated).
   • Confirming the source of the transaction (originating PC)
In other words, all aspects of the transaction are secured.

myBiometrix leverages an array of foreground and background technology presented through an intuitive user interface that provides multi-factor “personal trait” authentication.

   • irrefutably authenticates “personally” to a website using traits including
   • prevent others from falsely using the owners credentials to log on
   • eliminating the growing incidence of Phishing and Pharming attacks
   • eliminating Key Logger exposure as the keyboard is not used
   • eliminating the need to remember or write down pass-phrases

myBiometrix authenticates through a range of methods including:

   • Finger recognition
   • Voice recognition
   • Face recognition
   • Biometric Smart Card
   • Geometrical code
   • Others…

myBiometrix is a scaleable solution that can be hosted by us as a Managed Service or run In-House. Delivering irrefutable authentication and security and monitoring mechanisms, whilst maintaining a practical usability balance, myBiometrix conveys a holistic approach that is a world leader in irrefutable Authentication and Verification.

Collaboration and Reseller enquiries are welcomed for our range of proprietary Biometric solutions.

LEARN MORE ABOUT myBiometrix:

 www.myBiometrix.com

OR CONTACT US DIRECTLY AT:

busdev@myBiometrix.com

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According to research from Javelin Strategy & Research, a majority of consumers are ready to try using contactless payment devices at over 35,000 merchant locations in the United States that now accept contactless payments including quick service restaurants, convenience stores, pharmacies, theaters, and sports venues. The survey responses clearly indicate that the strongest motivator for such use is convenience. Both current users and potential adopters rated speed at checkout as the most compelling reason for using contactless payment (71%). Other significant factors included ease of use (65%), security (41%), and the ability to carry around fewer items (35%). Only 25% of the survey respondents who had never used such devices indicated that they would be unlikely to use them in the future. 

We will cover some of the top wireless trends for 2007 in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe today.

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Vulnerability assessment tools aren't just for scanning devices and pinpointing vulnerabilities anymore. They are progressing beyond this basic task and are now being bundled with configuration management, policy, and penetration testing functions. Some security experts see two trends: VA/configuration management and compliance, and VA/penetration testing tools. Others see it even becoming part of network access control (NAC) tools. That is because NAC can do security configuration, as well as provide enforcement if vulnerability scans show that devices are not meeting minimal security configuration policies - in which case they can be quarantined or denied network access.

Security awareness training is arguably the most important part of a successful security program. Unfortunately it is not a simple task to create and run a security program. Here are just some of the challenges your IT Department faces when creating a security awareness program:

- Creating curriculum 
- Making sure the curriculum is customized to your bank
- The actual training itself (distributing for self-training or getting everyone to class) 
- Keeping track of who has taken the course 
- Testing to ensure the class is actually working 
- Tracking test scores and retakes needed 
- Security awareness reminders (posters, login banners, mouse pads, etc.) 

The Computer Security Resource Center at NIST has developed a resource page for security awareness that lists many companies and organizations that can help you develop a useful program: HTTP://csrc.nist.gov/ATE/  

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Stay Tuned for Upcoming Leaders Roundtables! 

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Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are approaching their first decade on the market, but they still mean different things to different people in different industries. Some analysts say that at heart, CRM tries to do one thing: bring accurate and relevant information about customers to employees' desktops. They believe that the bottom line is that CRM should help you develop a "corporate memory" about all your customers, so that you can serve them consistently and remember the issues that are important to each customer. In an ideal world, everyone at the bank would have access to the CRM system so they are on the same page and work as a stronger team to serve the customer.

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Research firm Celent predicts that international remittance should grow 10.1% through 2008. Currently, the big money transfer companies dominate the $233 billion international remittance market, but financial institutions are jumping onboard rapidly. Of course, banks must have money-laundering and anti-fraud measures in place when involved in foreign money transfers. PayQuik, a payment processing company in Bala Cynwyd, PA, is looking to work with banks to help them meet OFAC and other guidelines. The company says that their network of retailers and financial institutions in other countries takes care of the technical details, leaving their bank clients free to focus on marketing.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CORILLIAN ONLINE EXPERIENCE AT:

 WWW.CORILLIAN.COM

OR CONTACT US DIRECTLY AT:

INFO@CORILLIAN.COM

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Internet Access

According to the Radicati Group, instant messaging (IM) is the fastest-growing communications medium of all time. The research firm is predicting that the number of IM accounts worldwide will grow from 995 million in 2006 to more than 1.6 billion by 2010. banks looking to implement IM must look for an encrypted solution and one that provides archiving; plus they will need policies to govern IM use that address what needs to be archived and who is allowed to talk to whom.

If you want to test how vulnerable your own employees are to phishing attacks, then Core Security's new version of its Impact penetration testing tool is for you. It includes a module that, like an effective phish, lets you build fake emails that look legitimate. It's a way to test both how well your end-user anti-phishing education and policy and anti-phishing tools are working. The new version 6.2 of Core's commercial penetration testing tool includes templates that reflect the latest trends in phishing and social engineering exploits. It also lets you automatically generate emails to a group of "targets," but with personalized content to each recipient.

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Call Centers

Witness Systems, a company that specializes in workforce optimization solutions for contact centers, this fall conducted a survey to determine the top concerns of call centers. The firm found that first call resolution (37% of respondents) topped the list of challenges faced by customer service organizations. Other concerns included:

Customer satisfaction and retention                                23% of respondents
Root cause analysis                                                       11% of respondents
Creating effective training initiative                                   9% of respondents
Agent satisfaction                                                          8% of respondents
Improving up- and cross-selling rates                                 6% of respondents
Other (e.g. insufficient staffing, retaining good employees)  6% of respondents

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