BANK tech-trends News
 

February 2, 2009 - February 6, 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

Western Digital announced “the world’s highest capacity drive” at 2 terabytes. The WD Caviar Green WD20EADS is a 3.5-inch hard drive with 500 GB/platter technology and 32 MB cache. Specs include the following: StableTrac, which secures the motor shaft at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations; IntelliPower, which fine-tunes the balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms; IntelliSeek, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration; and NoTouch ramp load technology, which is designed to ensure the recording head never touches the disk media resulting in significantly less wear to the recording head and media.

Brocade has launched a multi-blade switch aimed at bringing enterprise class technology to smaller organizations. The DCX 4S is a four-blade-slot version of the 384-port, 8Gbps DCX chassis switch. In addition, the DCX-4S can be managed by using Brocade's Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) as a management tool.

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ATMs/Kiosks

NCR is shedding ATMs from its lower-end product line. NCR will discontinue the manufacture of the EasyPoint 3300 and the EasyPoint 3600. These are two former Tidel ATM models that NCR merged into its EasyPoint retail line after NCR acquired from Tidel Technologies in December 2005. On a more positive note, NCR launched a new web-based service for easier and faster management and processing of envelope-free deposits at ATMs. NCR APTRA Deposit Gateway is a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that enables banks to perform check image processing for envelope-free deposits made at the ATM. The NCR solution, including server hardware and application software, will receive check images and transaction details captured at the ATM, consolidate the transactions and provide the bank with online access to view check images, make corrections, generate transaction reports and send image cash letters electronically.

NextGen Research forecasts global markets for financial kiosks and enhanced ATMs to grow at a compound annual rate of 9% to include more than 186,000 financial kiosks and more than 2.4 million ATMs by 2013, more than half of them installed in the United States. Larry Fisher, Research Director of NextGen Research, observes that, “The ATM segment of the market will draw on enhanced capabilities in deposit automation for much of its growth, as machines that can instantly verify checks will rapidly replace older-generation ATMs. This will be especially true in the United States, where the market is saturated with outdated equipment.”

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Fujitsu has unveiled a waterproof biometric smartphone. The F-01A phone can survive in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes. The F-01A features AuthenTec's TouchStone waterproof packaging, TruePrint fingerprint technology and TrueNav navigational controls. According to AuthenTec, moisture is a leading cause of cell phone returns. AuthenTec says biometric fingerprint technology is particularly susceptible to wear and tear, so combining fingerprint and waterproof capabilities is a noteworthy feat.

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Research published by Monitise Americas shows that Americans are increasingly demanding 'always on' information about their money, with 77% saying that it was important for them to have real-time and immediate information regarding their bank and credit card accounts. Information and basic money transfer services hold the most interest for consumers. Over 90% of those polled who stated that they wanted mobile money services said that they would like to check account balances, view latest transactions and receive fraud alerts. Transactional services are also in demand, with 90% also wanting to transfer money between checking and savings accounts and 80% saying that they would like to be able to pay bills and receive notification when they are due. However, when asked about their appetite for more advanced services, such as trading stocks using their cell-phone, only just over a third, 37%, expressed any interest in performing these services on the go.

According to Kaspersky Lab, a new Trojan is spreading via SMS text messages that instruct victims to transfer money from their accounts to attackers' phony accounts. The malware, which attacks Symbian mobile phones, is similar to a banking Trojan that targets PCs. So far, the Trojan is going after customers of an Indonesian mobile provider, according to Kaspersky.

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Commtouch and Netgear have formed a partnership whereby Commtouch’s Recurrent Pattern Detection anti-spam and GlobalView URL Filtering services will be integrated into Netgear's ProSecure STM Series of Web and Email Threat Management Appliances. The STM Series combines email and Web security, as well as zero-hour protection and policy enforcement. Commtouch provides messaging and Web security technology which utilizes a cloud-based datacenter approach that automatically analyzes billions of Internet transactions in real-time to identify new email- and Web-based threats as they are initiated.

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM) is a scanner that is designed to keep malware off of your computers. MBAM comes in either the free version or the full version. The full version features a threats center, which will allows you to keep up to date with the latest malware threats. Activating the full version also unlocks real-time protection, scheduled scanning, and scheduled updating.

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Security:

Protecting Customer Data at Rest and in Motion

CheckFree - http://www.checkfree.com Read Christopher Beier's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/CheckFree.pdf

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

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

Gladiator Technology - http://www.gladiatortechnology.com Read Danny Johnston's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Gladiator.pdf

Guardian Analytics - http://www.guardiananalytics.com Read Tom Miltonberger's comments:     http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Guardian.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 Keith Young's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/ICS.pdf

Intrepidus Group - http://www.intrepidusgroup.com   Read Rohyt Belani's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Intrepidus.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

Reclamere - http://www.reclamere.com   Read Kevin Doyle's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Reclamere.pdf

Simpler-Webb - http://www.swinc.com   Read Jeff Simpler's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/SimplerWebb.pdf

SkyRecon Systems - http://www.skyrecon.com   Read Sean Martin's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/SkyRecon.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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CallFire announced a free 1-hour Call Tracking consultation for organizations interested in tracking telephone calls back to the original advertisement. The advertisers, using Internet, radio, TV, or print, can now purchase unique telephone numbers and then allocate these numbers to individual advertisements. With the call tracking interface of CallFire, advertisers can then easily trace which campaigns are driving the most telephone calls.

If your bank would like to provide some links to a few free financial resource website for your customers, you might consider these:

- www.mymoney.gov - This U.S. Treasury Department site has information to aid consumers in understanding, saving and better managing money.
- www.360financialliteracy.org - The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) created this site.
- www.jumpstart.org/mdb/browse.cfm - The JumpStart Coalition has a good set of resources available in its Clearinghouse.

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The world's leading payment networks are looking to establish global standards and interoperability between Online Banking Enabled e-Payments (OBeP) schemes. OBeP schemes are defined as those that allow consumers to pay for online purchases using their trusted online banking systems. The organizations that are evaluating how the systems might easily work together include: iDEAL (Netherlands), giropay (Germany), VocaLink (U.K.), NACHA (U.S.) and INTERAC Online (Canada).

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Internet Access

If your bank is getting ready to deploy a VoIP system or looking to add more VoIP lines but is unsure on how your network would handle the extra traffic, you may want to consider the OpManager VoIP Monitor. This module brings together network fault and performance management functionalities of OpManager, VoIP Quality of Service monitoring using Cisco IP SLA technology and granular network traffic troubleshooting from Netflow Analyzer to give you a complete end-to-end VoIP network management solution. OpManager's VoIP Monitor covers these areas:

- Pre-deployment testing of a network to run VoIP
- Continuous monitoring of VoIP network performance
- Troubleshooting poor VoIP call quality
- Planning & testing for capacity additions

Vidyo has been awarded the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Product of the Year Award in the North American Conferencing and Collaboration Market. The telepresence solutions provider was recognized for their new line of video conferencing products that leverages a new standard (H.264/SVC). Using scalable video coding (SVC), Vidyo's architecture allows applications to adapt to varying network conditions, including packet loss, fluctuating network bandwidth, and network delay. The award proclamation said that this approach has the potential to remove the barrier to large-scale adoption of video conferencing.

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Call Centers

In a bid to make it easier for call centers to have advanced speech technologies, Loquendo and MicroAutomation have announced a partnership for technical support and professional services. MicroAutomation is a systems integrator of call center automation solutions and will make it possible for customers to enhance their current applications by easily adding Loquendo speech products and services. This includes the company's text-to-speech (TTS) and speech recognition (ASR) offerings, which provide a number of voices and languages to choose from - the company offers 26 languages with 62 voices in both male and female versions.

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