BANK tech-trends News
 

October 22 - October 26, 2007

• 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

It appears that the all-in-one computer is making something of a comeback. Gateway has a sleek new model called the PC Gateway One, and VIA has their Fanless Ultrathin vm7700 VMPC. This slim unit attaches to the back of a monitor using a standard VESA mount and uses VIA's low power CPU which means that it is fanless and completely silent. VIA is targeting teller lines and other work spaces that want to keep their areas clutter free.

Google announced the fifth generation of its Google Search Appliance hardware. The Google Search Appliance now provides universal search capabilities to secure repositories, such as enterprise content systems. The appliance supports Microsoft Windows Integrated Authentication and can index 220 file formats. 

MagTek®’s ExpressCard 1000 is the industry’s first “ALL-IN-ONE” instant issuance and complete card personalization platform forCredit, Debit, ATM, and Financial Gift Cards designed to fit securely and comfortably within a branch location.

For the first time, card personalization features such as color card-printing, magstripe encoding, smartcard encoding, card embossing, indent printing, and foil tipping have been combined into a single device which provides both the physical and logical security features required to meet the demands of a branch or retailer’s card issuing environment.

Equipped with MagnePrint® card authentication technology (www.magneprint.com), the ExpressCard 1000 offers the capability to capture the card's reference MagnePrint at the time of card issuance so that reference value may be used in conjunction with complementary risk management analytics with card present transactions. The ExpressCard 1000 can be connected as a peripheral to MagTek’s IntelliCAT and MCAPS 3000 PIN selection and instant issuance software suites creating a complete and secure card issuing platform.

For more information on ExpressCard 1000, go to www.magtek.com or call your MagTek sales representative at 800-788-6835.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Mesa, AZ-based Better ATM Services has certified all of Diebold’s ix, iSeries and Opteva ATMs to dispense their prepaid cards. The gift cards, coupons, and instructions for using them are all dispensed out of the same slots through which cash is dispensed. In the Diebold machines, the prepaid cards are placed in one of up to four trays in a dispenser module normally used for cash. According to the two companies, the machines didn’t need any physical modifications.

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Some mobile phones have fingerprint sensors embedded in them, but now desktop phones are starting to get them as well. AuthenTec fingerprint sensors are being integrated into LG-Nortel IP phone 8540 – an innovative new phone which utilizes Microsoft’s Unified Communications solutions. AuthenTec AES1510 sensor enhances the security of the IP Phone 8540 by granting access only to authorized users, while also personalizing the phone for the currently registered user, thereby protecting data assets and sensitive company information.

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The GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association representing over 700 GSM mobile phone operators, and Western Union announced an agreement to facilitate the development of cross-border mobile money transfer services. They say that mobile money transfer services will make it simple, quick and affordable for more people to send small amounts of money through a conventional and regulated system. “Mobile networks now cover more than 80 percent of the world’s population and 3 billion people have a mobile phone, creating an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the world’s families for the first time,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. 

Verizon Wireless, the nation’s No. 2 mobile-phone carrier, announced that they have chosen mobile banking and payments application developer Firethorn as a strategic partner for mobile banking. Verizon Wireless and Firethorn said that they will team with financial institution partners to conduct comprehensive marketing and consumer education programs aimed at aiding and encouraging adoption.

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Cyber-Ark is one of a half dozen small vendors that have been grouped together in an emerging security product category dubbed "privileged access management." Although these tools work differently, the general idea is to place all of the administrative passwords in a sort of escrow (Cyber-Ark calls it a vault) and mete them out only to administrators who have a real need to access the systems in question. Privileged access management systems also enable organizations to monitor the use of administrative passwords, creating an audit trail that allows forensics investigators to identify the specific user who abused a shared administrative password. 

According to the Gartner Group, many companies spend too much money on security controls such as firewalls, antivirus software and other desktop protection tools designed to defend against traditional mass attacks. They say that these products have become highly commoditized and can be deployed for far less than many companies pay for such protection. They add that such inefficiencies have resulted in average organizations spending more than 5% of their IT security budget on security, and close to 12% if disaster recovery is included. However, Gartner has seen little evidence to suggest that the more you spend on security the better your security gets. In fact, their research shows that organizations with mature security practices rarely average more than 4% of their total IT budget on security.

MAGENSA™ is a trusted verification authority (TVA) that provides real-time remote-hosted credential authentication services. These services enable banks, businesses, and government agencies to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC multi-factor authentication and end-to-end data encryption capabilities into their existing processing environments without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.

Specifically tailored to enhance the security of internet banking and ATM applications, MAGENSA delivers unprecedented security and authentication using the familiar magstripe card credentials (secure tokens) that a bank has already issued to its customers. MAGENSA is powered by the trusted and proven card authentication technology known as MagnePrint® (www.magneprint.com). MagnePrint differentiates a customers’ authentic magstripe card from an altered or counterfeit version, transforming the traditional magstripe card into a powerful security token.

MAGENSA’s Secure Data Center (SDC), a reliable 24x7 operations center that is maintained 365 days a year, simplifies the integration of data decryption and MagnePrint scoring into existing websites, and allows for data federation across institutional domains.

For more information on MAGENSA, please visit www.magensa.net or call 877.MAGENSA.

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ONLINE BANKING: 

Embraced by Customers - The Next Steps

Digital Resolve - http://www.digital-resolve.net Read Dennis Maicon's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/DigitalResolve.pdf

First Internet Bank - http://www.firstib.com Read David Becker's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/FirstInternet.pdf

Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com Read Greg Haislip's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Microsoft.pdf

Open Solutions - http://www.opensolutions.com   Read Michael D. Nicastro's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/OSI.pdf

TowerGroup - http://www.towergroup.com   Read George Tubin's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/TowerGroup.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.umonitor.com   Read Dinesh Sheth's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/uMonitor.pdf

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Equifax announced the launch of a new direct marketing prospecting tool to help lenders target consumers in today's emerging credit market. Called Equifax TotalSource XL Emerging Market, this solution enables lending institutions to reach households that likely are in need of financial products and would be receptive to invitation-to-apply (ITA) offers. Created from a database containing extensive data on the unbanked market, TotalSource XL Emerging Market provides consumer selects, including demographics, lifestyles and behavioral attributes to help lenders identify households in need of financial products. Lenders then can use this information to promote ITA offers.

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We offer a turn-key branding solution that allows you to offer financial education, an online chore and allowance program and a teen prepaid card that teens can design themselves! These programs show your involvement in your community and will help parents show their kids how to earn and save money the smart way. The online chore and allowance program schedules chores and tracks their completion, making chores interactive and fun for the whole family. The prepaid Visa Buxx card is a great tool for teens to learn how to budget and it is a great revenue generator for you. Get $1 for each card sign-up!

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Contact Information & For Partnership Opportunities:


Jessica Stroud
Jessica@payjr.com
(214) 618-7037

www.PAYjrCorp.com 

The PAYjr Visa Buxx® Card is issued by BankFirst, Sioux Falls, SD, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. BankFirst; Member FDIC.

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Panda Security has launched Panda Security for Internet Transactions, an antifraud service for online transactions to protect clients of e-banking, pay-platforms and e-commerce against active malware. The firm says that banks will be able to scan PCs to ensure that users launching transactions on their websites are not affected by any malicious code, and that this eliminates the risk of passwords being stolen or other fraudulent operations. banks that utilize this service can also decide how to perform the scan on clients' PCs. For example, they can require them to run a scan before entering their details, or include it as a voluntary option. The scan can also be run after the customer identification process, on an intermediate web page, or on all the pages that the bank chooses. All these parameters are managed and configured through a web console. 

Revolutionary Convergence of Security Technology for Secure Internet Banking!

MagneSafe^TM P55 is a portable card reader/authenticator with four key technologies for secure online banking: Cardholder Data Encryption, MagnePrint^® card authentication technology, Website Authentication and Track 1, 2 and 3 card reading capabilities. In conjunction with MAGENSA^TM, the MagneSafe P55 is designed to offer secure, multifactor authentication for Internet banking, empowering consumers with the freedom and confidence of knowing that their transactions are protected anytime, anywhere.

MAGENSA, a Trusted Verification Authority that provides real-time, remote-hosted credential authentication services, allows credit unions to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC compliant multifactor authentication, data encryption, website authentication, and data federation capabilities without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.

For more information about the MagneSafe P55 or MAGENSA, visit www.magensa.net, or call 877.MAGENSA.

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Internet Access

Microsoft has unveiled their unified communications platform called OCS (Office Communicators Server) 2007 for the back end and Office Communicator 2007 for the client side. Essentially an upgrade to LCS (Live Communications Server), OCS will provide a platform for IM, voice conferencing, videoconferencing, and presence. Exchange 2007 delivers messaging, calendaring, mobile e-mail, and voicemail capabilities to round out Microsoft's two-component UC vision. Some observers are saying that the software giant is now vying for "21st century dial tone" dominance with Cisco, Siemens, Nortel, IBM and others. 

Organizations with small, distributed offices have sometimes found it challenging to find a hosted VoIP solution that focuses on their needs. The larger carriers, including AT&T, Qwest, Sprint, and Verizon, offer hosted services but they have not focused entirely on businesses with small distributed offices. However, there is a company that has built its business around serving businesses with small, distributed offices with fewer than 20 people in each office. We will feature them in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe today.

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Call Centers

Resolute Solutions Corporation, a technology consulting firm, announced the availability of an integrated contact center solution: Intelligent Contact Center. The firm says that this new solution integrates five Microsoft technologies and includes a set of best practices and development accelerators for creating a highly integrated contact center solution. The Resolute Intelligent Contact Center complements the features in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

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