BANK tech-trends News
 

 December 29, 2008 - January 2, 2009

• 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

Allied Telesis announced the launch of AT-FS705LE and AT-FS708LE, two advanced 10/100TX low power unmanaged switches with five and eight ports respectively. The company says that these two switches are more energy-efficient than other entry level switching products by featuring power supplies that are Energy Star compliant to reduce power consumption. When Ethernet cables are connected, a device within the switches detects the cable length and drives less power to shorter cables. The AT-FS705LE and AT-FS708LE automatically switch to “overnight” mode when attached peripherals and computers are powered off.

In a related story, Green Rack Systems has launched a new green data center equipment line. The company claims that they able to design, install, and maintain energy efficient data centers that consume just a fraction of the resources previously required for full-scale IT rollouts. Their strategy includes using low-wattage multi-core CPUs, low-voltage memory, low-power hard drives, ultra-low consumption power supplies, plus they have developed a complete program to maximize the potential cost savings in the data center. 

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ATMs/Kiosks

Diebold has created an electronic reference guide for banks interested in learning more about outsourcing. Diebold says that they created the e-book to provide an easy-to-access source about outsourcing, and to help banks assess whether the strategy could be viable for them.

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A forgery and theft case in Washington state had decent surveillance images from an ATM, but few other leads on who committed the crime. The ATM images were e-mailed to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department where they used a facial recognition package to compare it to 16 years’ worth of prisoner mug shots taken at the Pierce County Jail, and within 15 minutes they found a match. The match was the first for the Sheriff’s Department’s six-month pilot project with Sagem Morpho’s facial recognition software, MorphoFace. Officials are currently revisiting unsolved financial institution robberies, ATM scams and other crimes that have good surveillance images to see whether the program can crack those cold cases.

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According to Javelin Strategy and Research, browser-based mobile banking is the most popular method of mobile access for American financial institutions, with a 70% market share. Currently, only 26% of institutions offer SMS text based mobile banking, while 22% prefer to use dedicated applications. 

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) announced it has published RFID Basic Functional and Numbering Requirements for IT Data Center Assets. Over the last six months, FSTC customers and RFID organizations have collaborated to produce functional requirements targeted at IT asset vendors for pre-tagging data center equipment in a standard method prior to shipments to data centers. This FSTC project had a goal of assisting data centers with creating a process that will reduce the time required to inventory IT Assets. The implementation of RFID technology allows the entire inventory process to be automated from end-to-end (ordering, receiving, installation, maintenance, and removal and destruction), thus increasing accuracy, reducing labor and providing real-time location capability.

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Sophisticated cybercriminals are increasingly taking cover behind legitimate websites and email domains to lure their victims, according to Cisco Systems' annual security report. Among the key findings of The 2008 Cisco Annual Security Report are a 90% increase this year in threats originating on legitimate websites that were unknowingly infected by cybercriminals, and nearly 8% of email providers' traffic was generated from hijacked legitimate email domains. It all starts with malware and botnets, according to Cisco, and botnets are the "nexus" of cybercrime. Cisco expects spear phishing - which currently accounts for only 1% of all phishing attacks - to grow next year as cybercriminals create more convincing messages. Social engineering and the expansion of mobile computing, virtualization, and cloud computing will also pose more risks in the coming year. 

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has published a list of preventative measures that organizations can take to stem website attacks, such as SQL injection. Here are the IC3's recommendations for protecting your website:

- Disable potentially harmful SQL stored procedure calls 

- Deny extended URLs 

- Install and run authorized Microsoft SQL Server and IIS services under a nonprivileged account 

- Apply the principle of "least privilege" on SQL machine accounts 

- Require passwords on Microsoft SQL Server administrator, user, and machine accounts 

- Run the minimum required applications and services on servers needed to perform their intended function 

- Deny access to the Internet except through proxies for store and enterprise servers and workstations 

- Implement firewall rules to block or restrict Internet and intranet access for database systems 

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Core Systems:

Core Systems – Collaborating to Better Serve Customers

COCC - http://www.cocc.com Read Joe Trafton's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/COCC.pdf

Fidelity Information Services - http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com Read John Schooler's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/FIS.pdf

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

Software and Management Associates - http://www.smausa.com Read Michael W. Taylor's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/SMA.pdf

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Many banks are starting to cater to customer demand for green products and services by offering innovative green lending programs. Case in point: Cleveland-based KeyBank provides a discounted rate to buyers of qualifying environmentally friendly vehicles. Customers of their Go Green Auto Loan program receive an additional 25 basis points off the assigned auto loan rate when they buy a 2007-2009 model of a qualifying hybrid, alternate fuel or fuel-efficient vehicle and take out a minimum auto loan of $5,000. 

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For the first time a majority (53%) of Canadian consumers are now banking online, and the Internet has become the primary contact point for more than a third (35%) of Canadian consumers. And while 82% of Canadian consumers have used a branch in the past year, the migration to Internet banking for day-to-day transactions represents a significant shift in consumer attitudes and behaviors, according to some observers. With the Internet now established as a mainstream full-service channel, attention is turning to mobile banking; however, just 14% of Canadians expect to be conducting their banking using mobile devices in the near future.

By some accounts, most activity in Banking 2.0 is taking place outside the traditional banking sector, e.g., Mint and Wesabe. Some observers believe that banks can take the lead with new online personal financial services by utilizing readily available technology to roll out interactive personal finance tools and software that offer insight into the critical financial decisions that customers have to make. They argue that customer education through rich media, webcasting, social media are now quite easy to implement within the bank's online offerings, and that despite the difficult economy, 2009 would be a good time to move forward with some new online functionality.

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Internet Access

Verizon Business recently announced new enhancements to its Private IP-Layer 2 service. The telecom giant says that with these enhancements, organizations using traditional data services such as frame relay and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) can get the benefits of the company's Private IP-Layer 3 service. Layer 3 is the network level where more advanced IP-based technology like MPLS can transfer information between different devices and various networks. Other benefits of the enhancement include higher bandwidth, with speeds up to 1 gigabit per second as well as Layer 3 connectivity via a shared port, and new access options, including Ethernet with traffic prioritization, among other new capabilities.

In a related story, Verizon Business now offers organizations hosted access to Cisco’s Unified Communications System Release 7.0. The service integrates business applications with essential components, such as mobility, instant messaging, and presence. The new offering has expanded click-to-conference and the ability to simultaneously contact colleagues by multiple phones and IM, along with simplified management.

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Call Centers

In addition to the services offered above, Verizon is offering management of the Cisco Unified Contact Center-Express platform, which integrates UC&C functionality into contact centers. Designed for fewer than 300 agents, it combines contact center functionality such as agent configuration, IVR, speech recognition, ACD, CTI and database management with advanced features including presence and IM. It also includes workforce management features, which permits customer service agent scheduling to help optimize call loads.

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