BANK tech-trends News
 

March 23, 2009 - March 27, 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

Cisco Systems just unveiled its Unified Computing effort, including the company's move to offer its own server hardware. Taking a step into the server market, where it will compete with Hewlett-Packard and IBM, Cisco announced the UCS B-Series blades, based on upcoming Intel Nehalem processors. Cisco also is teaming up with software partners such as Microsoft, VMware and BMC to provide technology for its new system. Cisco will prepackage, resell and support Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V technology and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as part of the Unified Computing System. For its part, VMware is providing virtualization technology to the new system and BMC is contributing resource-management software.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Security researchers from Sophos have discovered sophisticated malware that siphons payment card information out of ATMs made by Diebold and possibly other manufacturers. If installed, the three trojans contain functions that permit them to log information recorded by an ATM's magnetic card reader. In response, Diebold has offered a software update as a precautionary measure. The Sophos researcher said this appears to be the first time malware has been uncovered that specifically targets ATMs, and that the malware could only be installed by someone who had physical access to the ATM.

Allpoint Network says that they are the first surcharge-free ATM network in the United States to offer iPhone and Android applications for locating the 37,000 surcharge-free ATMs across its network. The new applications join a suite of other services including a 24 hour speech phone system, mobile web friendly locator, and GPS download functionality for Allpoint website searches.

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Hitachi recently presented an overview of the use of biometric ATMs in Japan. These ATMs use palm and vein recognition, rather than fingerprints. Users hold their hand over the terminal and it recognizes them via the unique map of arteries and veins in their hand. Hitachi claims that the system works with false positives down at 0.0001%, one in a million, and false negatives at 0.01% or one in ten thousand.

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Global mobile banking take up is set to soar over the next five years, with the number of people using the technology growing from 20 million in 2008 to 913 million in 2014, a CAGR of 89%, according to Berg Insight. The research firm believes that mobile banking will mainly serve as an extension of existing online services in Europe and North America as handsets become more widely used for Internet access. By 2014, their research forecasts that mobile banking will attract 80 million users in North America.

According to Javelin Strategy and Research, mobile bankers use mobile phone features at an increased rate compared to all consumers with mobile phones, suggesting they would be likely to adopt a unique mobile product, the mobile wallet. Among mobile bankers, 89% use text messaging compared to only 58% of all consumers with mobile phones.

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IBM is introducing software that lets network administrators manage multivendor desktop security agents via a single console. Proventia Endpoint Secure Control (ESC) aims to support software security clients for multiple vendors in four areas: system protection, data protection, configuration management, and system maintenance. Initially, Proventia ESC will support anti-virus software from TrendMicro that can be deployed on the ESC agent and fully managed via the ESC management platform, but IBM says it plans to add more vendors and more products over time.

At the recent Visa Global Security Summit, Visa's chief enterprise risk officer Ellen Richey told attendees that payment card data fraud rates remain near historic lows despite economic woes and high profile compromises, and called for continued industry investment, collaboration and innovation. Richey outlined four critical priorities:

• Accelerate global data breach preparedness with greater PCI DSS compliance
• Actively engage consumers in the process of protecting their data
• Increase collaboration across the payment system to close security gaps and share critical information more quickly
• Reduce the value of stolen data through investment in new authentication measures

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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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Some analysts believe that now is the best time to target small businesses and point to statistics that show that the average small business generates $60,000 of deposits, and 60% of small businesses provide at least some fee income. Global Concepts Payments Consulting recommends that bankers focus on needs rather than demographics and behavior. The firms notes that banks should try to ascertain customer needs first and then develop appropriate products.

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Personal finance site Wesabe has launched a Web-services-based version of its money management platform for banks. The SpringBoard platform lets banks offer their customers the range of money management tools and community features available on Wesabe through their own websites.

Online PIN debit continues to move from concept to reality as HomeATM ePayment Solutions announced its PIN pad and POS device, the Safe-T-PIN, has achieved certification under the Payment Card Industry PIN Entry Device (PED) 2.0 standard. The device, which attaches via a USB connection to PCs to allow consumers to make PIN debit transactions on Web sites and to do person-to-person money transfers online, is the first of its kind to win PED 2.0 certification.

The TowerGroup says that the gross dollar volume of the U.S. noncash person-to-person (P2P) market in 2008 was $1.1 trillion. They define P2P as a consumer-initiated transfer of funds to another consumer using multiple channels and payment methods. Their research also found that:

• Over 3 billion P2P transactions occurred in 2008.
• In 2008, checks represented over $1.013 trillion of the noncash P2P payments in the US and cost financial institutions an estimated $255 million to process.
• Account-to-account (A2A) transfer volume will reach a projected $127 billion in 2012.

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Internet Access

FaxCore’s FoIP-in-a-Box has received a 2008 Product of the Year Award from Unified Communications magazine. The FoIP-in-a-Box appliances are designed to be easy to deploy solutions for migrating fax transmissions to an IP-based network. FaxCore is a strategic partner of Dialogic and deployed the first commercial installation of the Brooktrout SR140 FoIP product.

Egress Software Technologies announced the availability of Switch which is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) encryption service. Egress Switch allows an information owner to package their sensitive information using AES 256-bit encryption on any type of media such as a CD/DVD, USB stick or file. Once packaged, the secured information can be sent to a recipient either electronically through email, web, FTP, or physically through regular mail or in-person. The owner can then set or change security policies independent of the package through a service in the cloud.

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Call Centers

Varolii, which specializes in outbound communications, has introduced three new outbound communications products:

- Varolii Call Me Now
- Varolii Generations
- Varolii Contact Center Agent

The firm says that they are all designed to get people who are hard to reach to reply. Varolii Call Me Now allows recipients respond to SMS messages via text so Varolii can then either connect them with an agent or complete the conversation with an automated voice call. Varolii Generations is a solution designed for targeting specific demographic groups For example, you can alter the channel (SMS, voice and email), voice treatment, message patterns and previous response outcomes, such as time of day or male/female voice, depending on which demographic group you are targeting. Finally, Varolii Contact Center Agent automatically notifies agents to ensure staffing requirements are met. All three products use Varolii ID to send tailored messages to individual recipients – and all are dispatched using the features of the new unified Varolii Interact Platform.

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