BANK tech-trends News
 

January 21 - January 25, 2008

• 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

Hewlett-Packard is launching two rack-mount Intel-powered servers for small and medium-sized businesses. The 1U HP ProLiant DL160 G5 and 2U ProLiant DL 180 G5 are sister products to the enterprise-level DL360 and the DL380. The DL160 for small businesses starts at $1,400 and houses a pair of quad-Core 5400 sequence Xeon processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and an internal storage capacity of up to 3.0TB, with four 750GB hot-plug SATA, 3.5-inch drives. The DL185, aimed at larger organizations, starts at $2,000 and includes up to two dual-core AMD Opteron 2200 sequence processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and internal storage of 9TB maximum provided by a dozen 3.5-inch SATA drives. Both servers feature HP's Lights Out 100i Advanced and Select remote management boards which enable admins to manage the servers remotely, install or update software over the Internet or the LAN, and monitor hardware health such as fan, temperature and power supplies. 

The Steelbox 1250 video appliance is a network video recorder and distribution system that can support up to 250 IP cameras for 750Mbps throughput, acting as a controller switch for video traffic across any IP-based network where managers want to control video feeds. The Steelvault 5300 is a storage computer for holding up to 16T bytes of video content. Together, the products enable simultaneous viewing, playback and recording of full frame rate MPEG4 or Motion JPEG video streams. The Steelbox 1250 costs $12,500; the Steelvault 5300 costs $2,500 per terabyte.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Planar Systems is rolling out their new Planar iS40 which integrates digital signage and DS15 integrated kiosk. The firm says that their system is “plug-and-play” and only requires AC power and an Ethernet connection for setup. The Planar iS40 features a 40-inch LCD and allows users to create, display and centrally manage digital signage content being displayed in multiple locations. The new DS15 kiosk runs under Windows XP and includes a software suite that enables organizations to incorporate their creative assets such as JPG, HTML, Flash, Shockwave and QuickTime content.

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Fingerprint Cards’ swipe sensor technology has been chosen by CardLab ApS for the development of a new biometric secure payment card. The biometric card will have the same format in size and thickness as the standard plastic cards in circulation today, and can be read by the magnetic stripe card readers used in existing payment systems. A complete biometric system will be embedded in the card powered by wafer-thin batteries also inside in the card. Once the cardholder has verified their identity to the card’s biometric system, the card can then be used for a transaction. Without this biometric verification, information cannot be read from the card’s magnetic stripe and a biometric verification must take place for every new transaction being made. The biometric information of the cardholder never leaves the card.

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Obopay, a mobile payment service provider, announced that it is adding support for BlackBerry smartphones. According to the company, "the new Obopay application for BlackBerry users provides fast, customizable access to Obopay's full suite of mobile payment services." With Obopay, users can send and receive money, check their balance and payment history, and purchase goods and services.

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Comodo has launched their Memory Firewall which they claim prevents most (90+%) buffer overflow attacks. Buffer overflow attacks are often used by criminals to deliberately cause a buffer overflow to crash a computer which creates the opportunity for them to then run malicious code and even gain control of the entire operating system. Comodo says that their free Memory Firewall detects most buffer overflow attack attempts such as attacks on STACK memory, HEAP memory, ret2libc attacks and of corrupted/bad SEH Chains. 

The SANS Institute's list of the 10 most dangerous cyber threats reveals growing technical expertise and professionalism among hackers acting for financially or politically motivated paymasters. Their Top 10 Cyber Threats for 2008 include:

1. Increasingly sophisticated website attacks that exploit browser vulnerabilities

2. Increasing sophistication and effectiveness in botnets

3. Cyber espionage efforts by well-resourced organizations to extract large amounts of data for economic and political purposes

4. Mobile phone threats, especially against iPhones, Google's Android phones, and voice over IP systems

5. Insider attacks

6. Advanced identity theft from persistent bots

7. Increasingly malicious spyware

8. Web application security exploits

9. Increasingly sophisticated social engineering to provoke insecure behavior

10. Supply chain attacks that infect consumer devices

- Detect and prevent internal and external attacks on your network
- Meet compliance standards and guidelines such as FFIEC

Banks are mandated to implement controls for ensuring the integrity of customer data and information systems. Log Management solutions that consistently monitor, store and analyze log data are essential components of a defense in depth program for protecting these critical assets.

EventTracker from Prism Microsystems secures IT networks from cyber attacks and insider-threats by automating the real time collection, analysis and storage of event logs from all sources. EventTracker provides a unique capability that integrates real-time log correlation and in-depth analysis capabilities with change management. This comprehensive security management approach allows you to quickly detect vulnerabilities and remediate them before costly data breaches occur. EventTracker comes integrated with over 1000 targeted reports to prove to auditors that internal processes are in tune with policies and appropriate safeguards are in place.

Deployed at dozens of credit unions and over 600 companies worldwide, EventTracker is a powerful, cost-effective solution that is highly scalable yet easy to implement and maintain.

Download a free trial and get further information at www.eventlogmanager.com

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Security:

Perimeter, Host and Endpoint Security – Finding the Right Mix

Arcot - http://www.arcot.com   Read R. 'Doc' Vaidhyanathan's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Arcot.pdf

Astaro - http://www.astaro.com Read Alex Quinonez's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Astaro.pdf

Code Green Networks - http://www.codegreennetworks.com   Read Brian Czarny's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/CGN.pdf

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

e-DMZ Security - http://www.e-dmzsecurity.com   Read Kris Zupan's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/e-DMZ.pdf

HEIT - http://www.goheit.com   Read Dan Holt's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Heit.pdf

Integrated Computer Solutions - http://www.icsinc.com   Read Stephen Goldsby's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/ICS.pdf

MagTek - http://www.magtek.com   Read Kiran Gandhi's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/MagTek.pdf

Netsecuris - http://www.netsecuris.com   Read Leonard Jacobs' comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Netsecuris.pdf

Network Box - http://www.networkboxusa.com   Read Pierluigi Stella's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/NetworkBox.pdf

Perimeter eSecurity - http://www.perimeterusa.com   Read Kevin Prince's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Perimeter.pdf

Proofpoint - http://www.proofpoint.com   Read Sandra Vaughan's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Proofpoint.pdf

Sydel - http://www.sydelcorp.com   Read Antonio Gonzalez's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Sydel.pdf

TraceSecurity - http://www.tracesecurity.com   Read Jim Stickley's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/TraceSecurity.pdf

TriGeo Network Security - http://www.trigeo.com   Read Michelle Dickman's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/TriGeo.pdf

ZixCorp - http://www.zixcorp.com   Read Dena Bauckman's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Zix.pdf

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VendorGuru.com, a Web portal for CRM software, has developed a list of the Top 5 CRM Software advancements of 2007. Number one on their list is that they believe that CRM is more sophisticated and even smaller hosted solutions offer more than just contact management. They say that small businesses are being offered more and more CRM software solutions that are rich in functionality, and are able to more easily and better manage their business processes and customer relationships. They point to solutions from ACT!, Oracle and Entellium that provide small businesses with management and analysis tools that improve intelligence and help increase sales. 

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According to the Aite Group, financial institution issuers of prepaid cards usable on general purpose payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard are making money, but they may be missing opportunities by not exploring new market niches or checking out networks other than the one they already use. The report states that banks tend to issue only a few products such as gift and incentive cards in the prepaid space. But there are other types of prepaid cards such as health benefits, payroll, government programs, and general purpose spending. “This means issuers’ expertise in the prepaid space tends to be narrowly defined,” the report says. “It also means that banks in practice shun most of the branded prepaid products supported by major card brands.” 

In a related story, SYNERGISTICS Research says that the recent introduction of the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, which could be the basis of a financial relationship – including bill payment, check-cashing, and payroll deposit – has intensified the concerns of many industry players that Wal-Mart is, one way or another, moving into direct competition with financial institutions. Their research shows that lower income respondents visit Wal-Mart an average of 4.8 times per month, while they visit financial institution branches 2.8 times per month. The report states that “the potential for a retailer such as Wal-Mart to make inroads into financial services by offering an alternative to a traditional checking account relationship with a prepaid card product may at first appear to be very limited. However, this must be interpreted in the context of the frequency with which Wal-Mart is visited and the significant minority who currently use the services of non-bank in-store financial centers, most of whom have a very positive perception of them. From this ‘toe hold,’ a retailer such as Wal-Mart could very well build a significant presence as the ‘primary’ financial provider of a sizable segment of lower income households.”

As more banks offer Health Savings Accounts (HSA), some may want to turn to the Internet to drive usage. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services wants to help with their new system that allows banks to offer online enrollment for HSAs. Using HSA Director, banks can automate such HSA processes as eligibility, enrollment, account management, claims submission, expense substantiation, receipt storage, reporting, analysis, customer service and Internal Revenue Service reporting.

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Internet Access

Smaller organizations often use DSL as a low-cost, high-speed way of connecting remote locations to the headquarters or Internet. Now a new service from New Edge Networks adds a useful twist to DSL. New Edge, the business-communications unit of EarthLink, is letting customers tag and prioritize their traffic over five classes of service in DSL, basically making the low-cost access lines extremely functional over a converged MPLS network. To get these prioritization capabilities, companies generally buy more costly T1 lines in conjunction with their MPLS service. New Edge says that their service can significantly reduce costs, while keeping service levels at a predictable, acceptable performance level. New Edge is using Redback Networks’ SmartEdge 800 gateway switches in its private IP network to enable the DSL prioritization.

Fax over IP solutions provider FaxCore has won a 2007 Product of the Year Award from Internet Telephony magazine. FaxCore said that its platform is the only Fax over IP solution built on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Using their browser-based solution, a wide range of business software and functions can be fax-enabled, including CRM, ERP, Exchange and e-mail. The FaxCore 2007 solution is built specifically for use with fax hardware such as Cantata Brooktrout’s TR1034 and SR140 FoIP.

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Call Centers

Many call center experts believe that a best practice for call centers is to turn to those on the front-line to gather their opinions on how to make a wide range of improvements. Many centers are conducting activities from seeking agents’ feedback during team meetings to getting them involved in the content and design of caller satisfaction surveys. Some even involve agents in improving the tools and applications used to provide a positive customer experience.

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