BANK tech-trends News
 

August 20 - August 24, 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

CTS North America has introduced a high-speed color check and document processing scanner dubbed the LS800. The check and document scanner/sorter processes up to 212 dpm (documents per minute) in either black & white or color mode. The LS800 meets all Check21 requirements and features a front and back imaging camera, a 500 document feeder capacity and intelligent multi-bin sorting capabilities. 

Corsair, a provider of computer and flash memory products, has launched the “Flash Padlock” family of affordable USB 2.0 drives starting at $29.99. The drives address the need for secure data storage through hardware technology, rather than software. Flash Padlock features “Auto-Locking,” so the user doesn’t need to recustomer to enable the protective feature because it will automatically lock and protect itself after removal from the computer. Flash Padlock can be unlocked via a touch-pad security PIN entry system.

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.

Back to Top

Back to Top

ATMs/Kiosks

Envelope free ATM deposits are gradually gaining traction. According to Dove Consulting, 21 percent of banks and 24 percent of banks deployed deposit-imaging ATMs in 2006. Another 58 percent of banks said they planned to deploy the technology at the ATM within the next year. The big three ATM manufacturers - NCR, Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf - are all promoting their machines' capabilities, and NCR alone has deployed more than 2,200 intelligent-deposit ATMs capable of accepting check and cash envelope-free deposits in the United States. Some experts are even predicting that by 2011, about one-third of all American ATMs will accept automated deposits for cash and check.

Back to Top

If your bank uses a Citrix Gateway, you may want to look into securing remote access with a new small biometric device. Learn more about it in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe today.

Back to Top

The 3G wireless card vendors (e.g., Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless) are targeting both laptop makers and users who want to connect via USB devices. Currently only about 10% of enterprise laptops have embedded 3G cards, so some organizations are looking closely at USB devices for remote access and disaster recovery purposes. Of course, embedding the access device makes it difficult to lose, break, or get stolen, but USB devices have advantages as well by offering a level of portability and flexibility attractive to end users. It works well in a modem pools where a few 3G devices are shared among a larger group. Plus they offer organizations the flexibility to upgrade their hardware as carriers rev their access technology to even faster speeds every year. 

Meanwhile, Sprint's ambitious WiMax service, providing speeds up to four times that of 3G (somewhere in the range of 2Mbps to 4Mbps), has a name: "Xohm" (pronounced ZOAM). The Xohm WiMAX network will be open access, meaning that all WiMAX-certified devices will be able to operate on the network. Devices will not be required to have an additional carrier certification, as is true with traditional cellular networks today. Sprint will build about 65 percent of the network, and Clearwire the remaining 35 percent. The Xohm service is scheduled to launch in Chicago and the Baltimore/Washington DC area by year-end and other commercial markets will be launched by mid-2008.

Back to Top

Security vendor RSA is reporting an increase in the amount of free 'man-in-the-middle' phishing kits - designed to subvert two-factor authentication controls - circulating around the Internet. The free kits are usually primed to send stolen user credentials to both the instigator of the fraud and the creator of the software. 

With its ThreatWall 450 Web Security Gateway, eSoft aims to make allowing employees to surf the Internet a safer proposition. The ThreatWall combines anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-spam capabilities into a single appliance. It scans common Web protocols for malware, provides URL filtering, and can allow or disallow IM and P2P traffic. The ThreatWall 450 costs $3,299 plus $999 for a one-year subscription. 

Many banks will turn to security consultants to help them protect their data, but it is important to be well prepared before the consultants actually arrive to do their work. We will give you some tips for working with security consultants in the upcoming issue of BANK tech-trends - subscribe now.

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.

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

Javelin Strategy & Research has come out with a new survey that surprisingly shows that Generation Y (consumers ages 18 to 29) is not ready to abandon the brick-and mortar, or other channels, to go completely online or to the handset for all their banking needs. For example, when selecting a new financial services provider, Gen Y consumers ranked access to ATMs and access to branches as more important than online service capabilities, in comparison to those of other age groups. In the last 12 months 80% of older Gen Y used an ATM for either a deposit or withdrawal, 59% used an automated telephone system to perform a banking transaction, and 90% visited a branch, demonstrating an apparent demand for multi-channel availability.

Back to Top

There were a couple of vendor announcements this week that affect online banking. First, Comodo announced a series of product enhancements to their TwoFactor solution. Key features of this new release include: 1) generation and acceptance of one time passwords when the customer is at a remote location; 2) a choice of delivery vehicles of the one-time password that the user selects, including SMS/phone or email delivery; and 3) enhanced administrative tools. Second, Yodlee and Andera announced a strategic alliance that calls for Andera to be the exclusive provider of account opening technology to Yodlee, and Yodlee to be the exclusive provider of account verification and funds transfer technology to Andera. 

Online Banking Report's latest issue titled "The Market for Fraud Protection, Identity Theft, and Credit Monitoring Services" recommends that "the time is right for all financial institutions to add identity protection/monitoring to their online offerings. The service has been optimized for Web delivery; it provides clear user benefits; it’s relatively easy to implement, and it can directly contribute to the bottom line in real, fee-based dollars, not nebulous intangibles.”

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.

Back to Top

Internet Access

NEC Unified Solutions has launched UC for Business (UCB), an enterprise-wide UC solution that merges contact center functionality with unified messaging, mobility and desktop telephony applications. NEC says that their UCB solution can help small organizations improve their communications through a customizable desktop application that integrates with Microsoft Outlook. With UCB’s Outlook option, users see a unified inbox for all landline and cellular calls, voice messages, e-mails, faxes, chats, and other communications directly through their Outlook client. Users can also establish an auto-attendant to identify incoming calls and provide preset, customized information or call routing to streamline communications. 

It can be painfully slow to move large files over a WAN (wide area network). One option is to deploy a WAFS (wide area file system) solution that minimizes the delays by using a shrewd combination of more efficient transport protocols and intelligent data mirroring. However these types of hardware solutions can be expensive. A more affordable alternative is to use a software package like RocketStream's application suite. The suite is founded on RocketStream's proprietary PDP (Parallel Delivery Protocol), which harvests the best characteristics of TCP and UDP and adds features such as on-the-fly data encryption and compression. RocketStream claims its suite provides better than 100 times the performance of FTP, and costs between $20 and $10,000 per year, depending on the bandwidth and the complexity of the installation. 

Back to Top

Call Centers

As more and more customers choose the online channel and soon the mobile channel, some experts believe that the call center is only going to grow in importance. That is because the call center is where customers turn to when questions or problems arise. TowerGroup estimates that transaction volumes at bank call centers are expected to grow relatively modestly: 7.1% annually over the next four years. That compares to a 27.2% annual growth in online transactions, 1.4% for branch transactions and 0.5% in ATM transactions. However, the complexity of the calls will increase and the research firm recommends investing in staff performance optimization, desktop integration and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) systems.

Back to Top