BANK tech-trends News
 

August 24, 2009 - August 28, 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

Netgear announced the availability of its ProSafe 8-Port VPN Firewall (model FVS318G). The device is intended for small organizations that need remote access and Internet access for employees with secure connections. It provides Virtual Private Networking (VPN) access using the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) standard, and sports eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, one Gigabit Wide Area Network (WAN) port and up to 25 megabit per second broadband throughput. Other features include Network Address Translation (NAT) routing and "classical" routing, support for up to five simultaneous IPsec VPN tunnels, Denial of Service (DoS) attack protection and multiple VPN passthroughs. It's priced at $139.

The new Sun Fire X2270 and Sun Fire X4270 servers are the fastest x64 servers Sun has ever produced. The Sun X2270 is a low-cost, 1U rack mount system starting at just $1,488. The X4270, the X2270's big brother, is a 2U system starting at $3,445. Both servers can run one or two Intel Nehalem CPUs, from the 2.0GHz E5504s to the high-end 2.93GHz X5570s. The X2270 is designed to be a front-end Web server or a small database server, while the X4270 is powerful enough to handle just about anything - a database server, application server, storage server, etc.

Back to Top

Back to Top

ATMs/Kiosks

The ATM Industry Association announced the launch of a new consulting and training practice and online portal. According to ATMIA, the mission of the new practice is to develop and manage a professional body of outsourced consultants, specialists and trainers that will help ATM deployers solve their problems and to grow their business.

NCR is working with the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland to uncover and thwart potential ATMs threats. Through an initiative called the "Ethical Hacking" program, NCR is working with customers of the university to test known and potentially harmful malware and develop new ways to combat ATM attacks.

Back to Top

SecuGen and Valid Technologies announced a technology and marketing partnership to deliver strong user authentication solutions to IBM enterprise computing customers. As a result of this partnership, the Valid Technologies VSSA Strong User Authentication solution will include support for SecuGen biometric matching technologies and the SecuGen Hamster family of biometric fingerprint readers. VSSA supports applications and logons on multiple enterprise platforms, including i/OS, Linux, and Windows.

Back to Top

Mobile RDC (remote deposit capture) using suitably equipped mobile phones as the image capture device is moving along very slowly compared to home and business based RDC. One commonly cited adoption barrier is risk. The FFIEC requires banks to undertake careful risk mitigation and controls when deploying RDC, including determining which customers are suitable for RDC, training them appropriately, and developing appropriate systems monitoring and reporting capability. However, some analysts believe that many institutions are hesitant to implement RDC in the face of declining branch profitability. RDC eliminates trips to the branch by definition, and expanded use of both home/business RDC and mobile RDC would exacerbate the need to address the big issue of over-branching.

Some analysts question whether mobile banking can really help eliminate calls to the call center. They feel that online banking has already maximized the reduction. However, other observers are convinced that mobile banking does reduce inbound calls. However, some proponents feel that in the future, mobile banking ROI will not be focused on expense saves - it will be focused on cross-sell, up-sell, and mobile CRM.

Back to Top

Authorities say that the huge data thefts at Heartland Payment Systems and other retailers resulted from SQL injection attacks. Once they gained access to a network, the attackers then planted sophisticated packet-sniffing tools and other malware to detect and steal sensitive payment card data flowing over the retailers' networks. Some security experts contend that SQL injection is not only the most attempted attack nowadays, it is also the most successful form of attack now employed. There are several measures that can be taken to limit exposure to SQL injection vulnerabilities including 1) a code review of all Web applications to identify input validation errors; 2) implementing properly configured Web application firewalls; and 3) hardening the underlying database and ensuring that the Web application connecting to it has limited access.

We reported on the FBI's SafeCatch robbery prevention program back in 2007. Since then the FBI has trained hundreds of employees at dozens of financial institutions. The program continues to be a success: Seattle - where SafeCatch was originally implemented - saw a 51 percent decrease in bank robberies last year.

Specialized malware is increasingly being developed that targets specific information or data, rather than more general attacks. While many experts say that most attacks over the next five years will still come from the morphing malware variants that are common today, but in higher and higher volumes, there are more and more sophisticated pieces of code that are very troublesome. For example, some malware is now pre-coded to steal specific information from the victim's organization, while other malware is being written with built-in functions that allow it to hack a researcher's machine. Some botnet malware even wages distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on researchers if they get too close to the command-and-control (C&C) system.

Back to Top

Online & Mobile Banking:

Saving Costs and Increasing Marketshare

eEminder - http://www.eeminder.com   Read Thomas Utsch's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/eEminder.pdf

Fiserv - http://www.fiserv.com Read Dave Selina's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Fiserv_Selina.pdf

Fiserv - http://www.fiserv.com Read Steve Shaw's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Fiserv_Shaw.pdf

Harland Financial Solutions - http://www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com   Read Jeff Marshall's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/HFS.pdf

MShift - http://www.mshift.com Read Pamela Livingston's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/MShift.pdf

Syphr - http://www.syphronline.com Read Chris Langeley's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Syphr.pdf

TowerGroup - http://www.towergroup.com Read Charul Vyas' comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/TowerGroup.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.umonitor.com Read Dinesh Sheth's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/uMonitor.pdf

Back to Top

CRM solutions vendor NetSuite has launched its own 'Cash for Clunkers' program which is designed to get companies to trade in their legacy business software and related hardware. The company claims it is the first provider of cloud-based CRM solutions to launch such a program. NetSuite isn’t requiring that companies turn in their old hardware or provide proof that they’ve abandoned their legacy systems, but instead is simply providing a “rebate” for customers that sign up for its cloud-based (i.e. Web-based) CRM solutions. More specifically NetSuite is offering $500 off every investment of $5,000 in its cloud-based software.

Back to Top

NCR announced a partnership with and Document Capture Technologies that will allow it to offer a new remote deposit capture hardware and software bundle for banks to offer to small businesses. The system provides a remote self-service terminal to business customers that integrates NCR APTRA Commercial Passport with a scanner from DCT and a specialized scanner software driver from Silver Bullet Technology, which will allow NCR to provide technical support to customers.

Back to Top

Interactive Intelligence, a global provider of unified IP business communications solutions, has released Interaction Conference 3.0, adding call scheduling, recording and reporting to its audio conferencing capabilities. The company says that the benefits of this new version include the elimination of per-minute charges, the convenience of scheduling conference calls 24/7, and simplified use through the automatic generation of bridge numbers and PINs from within an Outlook meeting request.

Some experts are convinced that HD (high definition) communications are the next step for VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). They note that although Internet-based telephone calls, through VoIP, have made communications less expensive, quality has often suffered as services became cheaper. They contend that larger organizations are starting to look at HD because they want better productivity out of their conference calls and their phone calls. They also believe that HD communications in the form of wideband codecs and high quality voice will start to come online in 2011.

Back to Top

LiveVox, a provider of hosted-dialer solutions announced upgrades to its ACD suite which allows real-time and anywhere monitoring, recording and coaching of call center agents. LiveVox allows managers to monitor and record agent calls in real time. As it is a hosted solution, managers can monitor calls using the LiveVox ACD irrespective of where they are located or the location of the agents. The ACD upgrade will help managers coach agents during calls without the knowledge of the callers and can also take control of the calls. The added advantage of the recording facility for inbound and outbound calls allows LiveVox clients to offer better training to agents and also put in place compliance policies.

Back to Top