BANK tech-trends News
 

July 2 - July 6, 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

Server electricity consumption in data centers has quietly doubled in the past five years, according to a study sponsored by Advanced Micro Devices. Many times IT managers haven’t noticed the steady increase in electricity costs, since in most cases they don’t see those bills. Yet now is the time to make your data center or server rooms "greener." Find out how in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe today. 

In a related story, Dell announced a partnership with Emerson Network Power to sell advanced cooling systems and services. One type of supplemental cooling technology from Emerson is called the Liebert XD. The XD consists of refrigerant-filled pipes that snake around the server racks in a data center. According to the company, their liquid system cuts the cooling power load by about 30 percent to 50 percent as compared with other types of cooling systems. Emerson says that cooling can consume about half a data center's electricity. By using a more energy efficient cooling method, IT managers can realize cost savings and, in turn, possibly dedicate more of their budget to servers.

Tape is a slow, unreliable and clumsy media for storing video surveillance, but it is still popular due to its low cost. However, more and more vendors are jumping into the digital surveillance storage market and driving down costs. For example, start-up Pivot3 offers a storage system that uses inexpensive Serial ATA drives. A Pivot3 system consists of one or more network connected hardware nodes called Databanks. Each Databank is an industry-standard server with 12 Serial ATA disk drives which can hold 6TB to 9TB. Pivot3’s competitors include Nexsan, Network Appliance, Cisco and InforTrend, to name a few. 

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

Korea-based ATM manufacturer Nautilus Hyosung recently opened its North American office in Dallas after severing long-time ties to California-based Tranax. Nautilus Hyosung has been in the ATM business since 1993, and their machines have a 33% market share in Korea. They are targeting banks with their NH 7040, NH 500, NH 5040 and NH 9030 models, which can come equipped with a depository, and the NH 7070, which can be a walk-up or drive-up unit.

Meanwhile, the Esprit Financial Group announced that they plan to wholesale Chinese ATMs to the North American market. Esprit says that with their direct access to manufacturing capability in China that they can aggressively compete at the wholesale level, offering significant savings to organizations needing basic cash dispensing machines.

According to a new study conducted by BuzzBack Market Research and commissioned by NCR, more than three out of four of the consumers polled said they are more likely to do business with organizations that offer self-service. Plus, 92% said they value combining mobile devices such as mobile phones or PDAs with the Internet, kiosks and ATMs to improve their overall service experience. In terms of banking, the respondents indicated their self-service preferences:

- Transferring funds — 78% 
- Printing statements, mortgage or loan documents — 77%
- Dispensing stamps — 75%

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Porticus Technology is touting their voice verification system as a triple-factor authentication solution. That is because they can measure your voice and characteristics of the microphone you commonly use, while also asking you to say a specific known phrase (a vocal password). They believe that they are poised for growth as online banking and e-commerce expand beyond the desktop to mobile devices.

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A company called Tyfone announced the launch of Harmony - a middleware communications gateway that Tyfone says "enables secure, two-way bank-to-mobile-phone interactions, and Over-the-Air (OTA) customization for mobile banking, mobile payments – including card account customization – and on-demand merchant relationship services." They say that Harmony facilitates this secure two-way communication from the bank to the mobile phone or the reverse, and that customers can safely transmit financial information, including wire transfer authorizations, and receive automated confirmation messages.

In its latest Mobile Payments Forecast Report, Javelin Strategy & Research says that contactless cards and mobile phones will function together to change the way everyday Americans and retailers conduct purchase transactions. They predict that chips embedded in consumer mobile devices will replace payments cards and will spur 30 million additional users over the next 5 years. New handsets will provide further motivation for merchants to accept contactless and will allow consumers to adopt technology that replaces wallets with cell phones (so-called mWallets or Wireless Wallets). 

Meanwhile Celent is predicting that mobile banking is likely to surge to five percent of online banking households this year. Within three years, service rollouts combined with consumer acceptance - the same ingredients that fueled online banking adoption - should make m-banking mainstream, reaching 35% of online banking households. Because about half of all calls into bank call centers are from cell phones, Celent sees a natural transition to mobile Web-based balance inquiries and simple transfers. Celent concludes that recruiting Gen Y users will be most FIs' priority - 90% of the under-25 set already have data capabilities on their phones. 

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Encryption over Ethernet is emerging as a new solution for powering secure networks. Proponents argue that Layer-2 encryption helps offload complexity and reduce maintenance charges. Encryption has been present in the Layer-3 (IPSec) and Layer-4 (SSL), but now, networking companies are offering solutions that encrypt data right down at the packet level. The companies offering solutions include Aruba Networks (wired and wireless networks), CipherOptics, SafeNet and ECI telecom.

Once installed on a computer, bots communicate secretly with its control center, download active code snippets for a specific attack, and often evade the latest in layered security mechanisms. Personal firewall features are often not catching command and control communications, while signature checking can be faked out by the polymorphic nature of code downloads. But two vendors are coming out with new anti-bot tools. Symantec is beta-testing its anti-bot endpoint software solution dubbed Symantec Anti-bot (with Sana Security contributing technology), and Mi5 Networks is now shipping Webgate, an appliance that seeks out the command and control communications lifeline that active bots require. 

A company called 2factor claims to have a solution to MITM (man in the middle) attacks with their new SecureWeb product. 2factor executives say their product prevents such attacks by continuously generating short-lived 256-bit secret keys that authenticate both the server and Web browser without noticeably slowing communications. If a bank were to offer SecureWeb, customers who want extra security would be prompted to download a small program that appears as a desktop icon. Instead of launching a browser themselves, customers would click on the desktop icon, which launches the browser and opens to the bank website. customers would log on with their user names and passwords as they do today, and otherwise would notice no changes, according to 2factor. SecureWeb starts at $1 per user, per month, with volume discounts available.

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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Looking for access to the small- to midsized-business (SMB) market heavily targeted by both Microsoft, Oracle announced Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One (SE One), an all-in-one suite based on Oracle's standard BI software but discounted and bundled for easy installation. SE One is $1,000 per user for five to 50 users and it includes the core Oracle BI Server, BI Publisher for reporting, BI Answers for ad hoc query and analysis and BI Interactive Dashboards. It also includes Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One and Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g, the latter supporting extract, transform and load as well as relational and dimensional modeling and data quality and data auditing capabilities. 

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Some organizations have begun to offer Web-based chat as a way to access customer service, but chat often can’t offer the privacy and responsiveness that some Web visitors demand. That is why some sites are turning to click-to-call which involves technology that lets visitors initiate phone calls by clicking a button on a Web page. This either launches a call to a service rep using PC-based phone, or places a request for callback on a traditional phone line. eStara is one company that offers a click to call solution and they say that it drives user satisfaction. In fact they say that one bank that use their click to call system has received a 91% approval rate by users who say the service makes online banking "easier" or "much easier."

Branch image capture is quickly becoming mainstream. Image ATMs, however, have a long way to go, according to a new report, “The State of Distributed Capture: Imaging in the Retail Channel,” from Celent. Key findings of the report include:

• Branch and teller adoption has grown from 19,000 capture points in 2004 to 103,000 in 2006 and will grow 160% to 272,000 by 2012 behind adoption by more than 90% of US financial institutions. 
• Over 2,600 financial institutions have implemented (or are implementing) branch capture corresponding to some 141,000 scanners through March 2007. Based on aggregate vendor activity, Celent expects over 3,300 institutions will have solutions by year end 2007. 

Experian has announced a new fraud detection solution that the company says "integrates data authentication with consumer challenge questions to create the most comprehensive approach for detecting fraud and managing the associated risk. The new product, Knowledge IQ, is the first system to merge two essential elements in the fight against fraud." Knowledge IQ resides within, and is powered by, Experian's Precise ID suite of identity authentication and fraud detection tools. Knowledge IQ assesses risk by posing a series of challenge questions to an applicant to enable a client to assess the consumer's identity risk. Experian also announced e-consumerview Version 8, which is a web-based system that allows access to Experian's credit information without the need for an automated application processing system.

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

While there are many reasons to implement a VoIP system, branch-office communications is often high on the list of many organizations. Yet, far too many organizations overlook how to monitor and manage the communications capabilities at the branch. We will provide some insights into the reasons why you should always invest in these monitoring tools in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe now. 

According to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the US trails other industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access and may never catch up unless quick action is taken by public-policymakers. The median US download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second — a fraction of the speeds in other countries: Japan (61 megabits); South Korea (45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits). "In order to maintain our place in today's global economy — and to create the jobs we need — our government must act," stated a CWA spokesperson.

Verizon recently introduced three new services: Wireless Office, PBX Mobile Extension and Mobile Conference Connection. Announced features include a single phone number that simultaneously rings to an office, home and cell phone; a unified mailbox that consolidates voicemail from multiple devices; and instant conference calls that can be organized and initiated with just a few clicks on any BlackBerry or Microsoft Windows Mobile smart phone or PDA.

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Call Centers

Co-nexus is a company that provides a call recording and quality monitoring solution dubbed Customer eXperience Management (CXM). CXM is designed for small to mid-sized call centers and is flexible and scalable. CXM offers the following modules:

- Call Recording – captures all calls, both predetermined and on-demand 
- PC Recording – records PC activity and indexes it for easy retrieval 
- Agent Performance Evaluation – lets call center supervisors analyze agent performance 
- Agent Coaching – helps supervisors create training material delivered to agents as videos, tests, example calls and bulletins 
- Caller Satisfaction Surveys – collects caller satisfaction data via a series of prerecorded questions

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