BANK tech-trends News
 

February 25 - February 29, 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

Unisys announced new servers and a suite of infrastructure management software that are aimed at giving it a bigger role to play in customers' datacenters, where it will compete more directly with Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. The new hardware includes Unisys' first blade servers, the ES5000 family, and new and upgraded ES3000 midrange servers based on quad-core Intel Xeon processors. As for the management software, it includes three parts: uAdapt, for shifting workloads between servers to get better rates of utilization; uOrchestrate, for automating processes and meeting service-level agreements; and uChargeback, which lets larger organizions measure server usage and charge individual departments for computing services they use. The three products work with any hardware platform running Windows, Linux, or Unix, and all are certified to run VMware's virtualization technology.

The success of flash-based USB thumb drives has led to innovations that are lowering the cost of flash-based storage. Traditional hard drives won't be disappearing any time soon, but some experts say that solid state flash drives will quickly make inroads into data centers as they come down in price. EMC introduced a flash-based solid state disk product one month ago, calling it "tier zero" in its Symmetrix line of storage arrays. Meanwhile, start-up Pliant Technology is planning to roll out its Enterprise Flash Drive storage devices this summer. Pliant says that they are combining commodity chips along with proprietary controllers that will let organizations obtain high rates of input/output operations per second, bandwidth and reliability levels, while avoiding overprovisioning of storage.

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ATMs/Kiosks

At the recent ATMIA conference, Diamond Kiosk presented their “Roll-Up Surround” (RUS) enclosure. The RUS enclosure features a metal door that can be lowered over the front of the ATM or kiosk to protect it from the weather. If it hasn’t been accessed after a pre-specified period of time, the mini-garage type door can automatically close. Users who want to access the machine after the door has closed can open it again by pressing a button on the enclosure.

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It appears that Wal-Mart and Costco are seriously looking into biometric payment systems. In action, consumers would place their fingertip on a pad, then select which form of payment they would like to use — check, debit, or credit. Proponents of the new system applaud its benefits to customer security and faster checkout speeds. Critics say that they doubt that many people would want their fingerprint images stored in a computer, but biometric vendors point out that the prints themselves are not stored. Instead, encrypted measurements of the prints are kept which do not permit recreation of a full print.

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Back in January, we reported that Mitek Systems had announced ImageNet Mobile Deposit, calling it "the first mobile banking software that allows financial institutions to accept paper check deposits and bill payments via camera-equipped mobile phones." Now they have an online demo:

http://www.miteksystems.com/in_mobile_demo.asp 

The first generation of High Speed Packet Access mobile services increased download speeds to mobile phones. Now carriers are also launching HSPA services, also known as Turbo-3G, with faster upload speeds, making the mobile office even more of a reality. AT&T Wireless just unveiled two new LaptopConnected HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) data cards for its wireless broadband customers. The first iteration of HSUPA supports theoretical data rates of up to 1.4Mbps. In the real world that means around 1Mbps - three to four times faster than existing networks. Next year the speed should increase to around 5.76Mbps.

British bank Lloyds TSB is adding a mobile phone number back-up service and increased handset insurance coverage to its 'Added Value Accounts' package. The new Save My Number service lets customers store phone numbers on a secure online site which can be accessed if the handset is lost, stolen or upgraded. In addition to the back-up service, Lloyds is increasing mobile phone insurance to thousands of dollars, in response to the rising cost of PDAs and handsets like Blackberries and iPhones. 

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The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has published “Recommended Practices for Anti-Money Laundering Compliance for U.S.-based Prepaid Card Programs.” It covers the following areas: 

1. How to conduct a risk assessment. 

2. How to establish a set of internal controls to achieve compliance with AML program requirements of the BSA. 

3. Federal reporting requirements and red flags to look for with respect to suspicious activity. 

4. Adopting and implementing programs to comply with know your customer requirements. 

5. Reducing risk when working with non-financial institutions, third-party agents and processors. 

6. How to implement independent compliance testing. 

7. Training program guidelines for key personnel. 

The report can be downloaded from the NBPCA website at http://www.nbpca.com. 

The Anti-Phishing Working Group is working on a new policy called the domain suspension initiative that would get domain registries to disable criminal sites. The new policy would shutter a site across an entire Internet domain, rather than just on the servers of a particular Internet Service Provider. The group developed the policy after observing that fraudsters were using a technique called fast flux to evade efforts to disable fraudulent websites they use to trick consumers into giving up PINs, passwords, and other confidential information. Used legitimately, fast flux is a handy technique that allows a website to redirect users when it changes from one ISP to another. The groups admits that the policy would work best if all registries adopted it, but they say that safety on the Internet will improve even if only some do. 

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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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Talisma Corporation revealed the results of their mystery shopper exercise that the firm conducted during November 2007 where they queried the top banks on how to open an account and what kind of products and services are available for individual customers. This audit reveled that 36 percent of customer e-mails went unanswered by the banks; 94 percent of those audited did not offer live chat as a communication channel; and 94 percent of banks did not offer a knowledge base, the majority of banks offered little more than a list of static FAQs. "We hope this report will be a catalyst that sparks an improvement in online banking customer service," said Dan Vetras, President & CEO of Talisma.

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According to a study by Gartner, 33% of US customers - the equivalent of 71 million people - regularly use Web banking services. Gartner says one of the key findings of the survey is that use of Web banking does not lead to a substantial decline in visits to branches. Furthermore, Net banking is actually linked to higher use of other channels like ATMs and telephone banking. The results also show that younger people and high-income earners are most likely to use the Internet for their banking. Gartner says the mainstream adoption of Web banking shows that financial institutions need to stop treating the Internet as a distinct delivery channel. Instead, they should use the Web to improve customer communication and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Dynamic Card Solutions (DCS) now supports contactless capabilities with the latest version of its CardWizard software. Contactless personalization will be available with its FCP 20/20 full card personalization instant issue solution along with the Datacard 150i embosser. Both the FCP 20/20 and the DataCard 150i embosser hardware used to make instantly issued cards will have the capability to produce chip and magnetic stripe cards on the spot. 

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Internet Access

The costs associated with WAN bandwidth have always been and still are among the major factors limiting the deployment of new applications in the network. Designing, supporting and maintaining cost-effective communication infrastructures becomes an increasingly difficult task, especially for smaller banks. A company by the name of Allot says that they can help resolve these issues, through the network appliances it has specifically designed for small and medium size networks. The family of products that Allot offers solves network traffic and bandwidth management issues by analyzing, controlling and optimizing network traffic at typical bottlenecks. They say that they can ensure the optimum utilization of available WAN bandwidth via customizable configurations that allow granular adjustment and prioritizing of network traffic.

Ifbyphone, a voice infrastructure and application company, announced the launch of IBP V 2.6 which is their voice broadcasting system geared towards smaller organizations. The system provides the ability to track clicks from the web, calls to toll free numbers, and outbound voice broadcast results. All click-to-call's are tracked with extension reporting options, and Ifbyphone V 2.6 solutions work with any telephone system.

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Call Centers

A leading call recording and quality monitoring vendor has released a new telephone-based survey application allowing contact centers to "capture the voice of the caller." Cc: Survey is an IVR-based survey system available as part of CallCopy's cc: Discover call recording and quality monitoring suite or as a standalone product. Callers can be transferred from the phone representative into the cc: Discover survey system, or they can dial a toll-free number to participate in surveys independent of the contact center.

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