BANK tech-trends News
 

May 24, 2010 - May 28, 2010

• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers

Complimentary Webinar

Maintaining Telecommunications & Meeting Auditor Requirements

It can be extremely difficult to maintain telecommunications with your staff and customers after a disaster. This point is evidenced by the fact that the Post-Katrina reports from all of the governmental agencies regulating financial institutions placed restoring communications quickly at the top of their lists. The FFIEC reports said that banks must:

"Anticipate disruptions in communications services, possibly for extended periods of time." 

The report also noted that "communications outages made it difficult to locate missing personnel." 

Therefore banks must develop affordable ways to quickly restore their telecommunications infrastructure. This complimentary Webinar will demonstrate how your bank can be prepared for telecom disasters without having a telecom person on staff or spending thousands of dollars on redundant phone systems.
 

What You Will Learn:

- How to inexpensively satisfy telecom disaster requirements
- How to show auditors that you can provide a backup telecom system with just 1 phone call
- How you can successfully answer every telecom disaster preparedness questionnaire on the auditor's forms.

BONUS: Every attendee will receive a sample Telecommunications Disaster Recovery Plan.

Who Should Attend:

IT staff, telecom staff, Audit and Compliance personnel, Managers, and anyone interested in maintaining telecommunications.


Date: Schedule a 30-minute live demonstration at your convenience that could one day save your business. If this isn't the easiest to use, most affordable, and most powerful inbound telecom disaster recovery system that you have ever seen, we will send you a free gift - seeing is believing!

To Register: http://www.banktt.com/webinars.htm  

Costs: Free

~ This Week's News is Sponsored by MARQUIS Software Solutions ~

Profitability Referral Tracking Full-Contact CRM

MCIF CRA/HMDA Compliance

MARQUIS delivers proven solution to over 750 financial institutions worldwide that are truly Easy, Complete, and Affordable. 

 

What the nation’s leading consultants are saying about Marquis!

“I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw ReferralTrax. Its sheer simplicity of operation masks an unbelievably sophisticated CRM engine that has no rival in the commercial marketplace. ReferralTrax chops the competition off at the knees…”

Randall Putala
SDMI

“Marquis is consistently listed by my clients as the best in class for MCIF software, support and service. I recommend Marquis to any marketing department looking for robust functionality in an MCIF - backed by world-class service.”

Constance Anderson
Consultant/Speaker

“The folks at Marquis truly know what they're doing! And, they are a class act."

Mike Neill
Michael Neill & Associates

Please contact John Kassing @ johnk@gomarquis.com, or call 800-365-4274 to learn more about MCIF, referral tracking or CRM solutions that you can and will actually use!

Hardware News

Gateway has added a pair of all-in-one desktop computers to their ZX series. Both the 20-inch ZX4300 and 23-inch ZX6900 lines feature computers with widescreen Ultrabright LCD touch displays with a contrast ratio of 1000:1. Other similarities include 4GB of DDR3 memory, 640GB SATA hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN, a multi-in-one card reader, and six USB 2.0 ports. MSRPs are $749 and $1019.

Seagate plans to ship a 3TB, 3.5-in Constellation ES hard disk drive this year, but cautioned that it will only be useable with PC and server makers who have upgraded their products to handle drives with capacities of more than 2.1TB. The 2.1TB ceiling was set about 30 years ago when a decision was made to limit the logical block address (LBA) range on a hard drive. The LBA specifies where blocks of data are stored on a hard drive. Software and hardware manufacturers now need to adjust everything from the operating system to the BIOS to be able to read larger 32-bit LBAs; however, the expanded LBA is a non-issue for 64-bit operating systems such as Windows 7 and Vista versions, which can already read the longer addresses.

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ATMs/Kiosks

The Printec Group has an ATM surveillance solution that captures and manages image and video data from multi-vendor ATM networks. These images and video are stored locally on the ATM for a configurable amount of time; furthermore, they can also be transferred to a central server either manually or automatically, at configurable time periods. Plus the images are time-stamped and may also render additional transaction-related details, providing a valuable aid to track back ambiguous or suspect events during transactions.

John Shepherd-Barron, the man credited with inventing the world's first cash machine, has passed away at the age of 84. The first machine was commissioned by Barclays and installed in 1967. In the absence of plastic cards, the first machines accepted special paper checks impregnated with carbon 14 and would dispense up to a maximum of $15 per transaction. In an interview with the BBC in 2007, Shepherd-Barron said: "It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash."

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ABI Research has come out with a new report entitled “Near Field Communications: Embedded and Aftermarket Contactless Applications for Mobile Devices and Other Consumer Products.” that splits NFC IC forecasts into three key NFC markets, namely mobile handsets, computer and consumer electronics, and peripherals for mobile handsets. Of these, the research firm believes that the emergence of microSD cards alongside other offerings such as active and passive contactless stickers over the next five years will provide many mobile users with initial access to mobile contactless payments.

Sybase has rolled out a Mobility Platform, a framework of servers, applications and services designed to help companies deliver mobile software to consumers and employees. The Sybase platform now includes Sybase mobile servers, including Sybase Unwired platform development, Sybase Afaria Device Management Suite, Sybase iAnywhere Mobile Office and SQL Anywhere; mobile applications, including Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM, Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite and Sybase mBanking 365; and Sybase Mobile Services – mCommerce Services for developed and emerging markets, Enterprise Services for mobile marketing and mobile CRM; and Operator Services.

Chase announced their Instant Action Alerts which are free and can be used by any Chase checking customer who has a mobile phone with an SMS capabilities. What makes this system unique is that mobile bankers can receive a text message the moment their checking account balance falls below a pre-selected amount – and then instantly transfer funds by sending a text-message reply as short as four keystrokes.

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Cashier’s check fraud scams are on the rise and often the victims are the people who can least afford to be taken. In these scams, someone, who the customer does not know, wants to pay them by check and have them wire some of the money elsewhere. Examples of this type of fraud scheme include:

- Lottery scams
- Work at home scams
- Secret shopper scams
- Check overpayment scams

Customer and staff education and awareness are critical in fighting these swindles - FDIC Special Alerts provide updated information on counterfeit cashier’s checks, and there have been 55 so far in 2010.

When some anomaly detection software packages detect irregular account activity, they attempt to place an automated call to the consumer. Fraudsters know this and in some cases are now using VOIP telephone systems to bombard the victim's telephone line so that they won't be able to answer the phone to receive the alert. Essentially the criminals launch a telephony denial-of-service attack that floods the victim’s phone with diversionary calls while they are attempting to drain the victim’s account.

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Security:

Managing Risk and Security Efficiently and Affordably

Cyveillance - http://www.cyveillance.com Read James Brooks' comments: http://www.banktt.com/Cyveillance.pdf

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

Guardian Analytics - http://www.guardiananalytics.com Read Terry Austin's comments:     http://www.banktt.com/Guardian.pdf

HEIT - http://www.goheit.com   Read Dan Holt's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/Heit.pdf

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

Hyland Software - http://www.onbase.com Read Steve Comer's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Hyland.pdf

Innovative Strategic Solutions - http://www.issone.com Read Jon Rhodes' comments: http://www.banktt.com/ISS.pdf

Millennial Vision - http://www.mviusa.com Read Scott Cowan's comments: http://www.banktt.com/MVI.pdf

Network Box - http://www.networkboxusa.com   Read Pierluigi Stella's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/NetworkBox.pdf

Ongoing Operations - http://www.ongoingoperations.com   Read Kirk Drake's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/OGO.pdf

Perimeter E-Security - http://www.perimeterusa.com   Read Kevin Prince's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/Perimeter.pdf

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

Trusteer - http://www.trusteer.com   Read Rakesh Loonkar's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/Trusteer.pdf

WhiteHat Security - http://www.whitehatsec.com   Read Anurag Agarwal's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/WhiteHat.pdf

Xceedium - http://www.xceedium.com   Read Cheryl Traverse's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/Xceedium.pdf

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According to a survey by ACTON Marketing, 37% of debit card users that have overdrawn their accounts this year – a significant portion of those using overdraft protection – habitually throw out information sent by their financial institution. This is going to make it difficult for banks to obtain permission from customers to provide them with automatic overdraft protection on all non-recurring debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals. “More overdraft users will be opted out of their overdraft protection programs this summer due to not responding, than overdraft users who will consciously opt-out because of high fees,” said Brian Beach, CEO of ACTON Marketing. “Our research confirms that if a bank sends out only the opt-in form, without previous info-marketing in place, almost a third of their overdraft customers will likely not respond and will be opted out.”

Profitability Referral Tracking Full-Contact CRM

MCIF CRA/HMDA Compliance

MARQUIS delivers proven solution to over 750 financial institutions worldwide that are truly Easy, Complete, and Affordable. 

 

What the nation’s leading consultants are saying about Marquis!

“I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw ReferralTrax. Its sheer simplicity of operation masks an unbelievably sophisticated CRM engine that has no rival in the commercial marketplace. ReferralTrax chops the competition off at the knees…”

Randall Putala
SDMI

“Marquis is consistently listed by my clients as the best in class for MCIF software, support and service. I recommend Marquis to any marketing department looking for robust functionality in an MCIF - backed by world-class service.”

Constance Anderson
Consultant/Speaker

“The folks at Marquis truly know what they're doing! And, they are a class act."

Mike Neill
Michael Neill & Associates

Please contact John Kassing @ johnk@gomarquis.com, or call 800-365-4274 to learn more about MCIF, referral tracking or CRM solutions that you can and will actually use!

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Quicken Loans, the fourth largest mortgage lender in the U.S., has rolled out a loan origination service dubbed Quicken Loans Mortgage Services aimed at banks. “With increased rules determining who can originate mortgages, many community banks have found themselves with a desire to offer home loans, but not large enough need to justify the cost of hiring mortgage consultants and underwriters,” the company said when announcing the new service.

RSA announced RSA Man-in-the-Browser Solutions, a portfolio of anti-fraud services designed to protect online information, identities and financial assets. MITB attacks are designed by fraudsters to infect a web browser with malware that can result in modified web pages and transactions that are largely transparent to both the user and the host application. The RSA defense layers include Transaction Monitoring; Adaptive Authentication; FraudAction Solution; and CyberCrime Intelligence Service.

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Founded in 1991, CommuniGate Systems offers CommuniGate Pro, which is a scalable Unified Communication platform for on-premises and hosted SaaS deployments. The company’s line of products include MobileOffice, UC Centrex and MessagePlus, and now they just released VoicePlus which they claim is the only professional quality High Definition IP telephony solution designed specifically for the small office. VoicePlus will be sold through certified CommuniGate Systems partners and select distributors worldwide starting at $4500.

Apptix launched the Active Directory Synchronization Tool, which is designed to automatically synchronize changes in on-premise active directory databases to Apptix's hosted active director. The firm says that the software streamlines the process of creating and instantly provisioning new accounts or managing and modifying existing accounts, while eliminating the need for multiple passwords. The tool makes it easier for new customers to join Apptix's network by simply duplicating their active directory structure with Apptix using this new AD Sync utility. Additionally AD Sync allows customers to limit the attributes to be synchronized, synchronize contact changes the local directory to the hosted address book and allow customers to configure what data, and when, it is to be synchronized. All synchronization is encrypted and one-way from the customer's AD to Apptix's platform.

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Interactive Intelligence has added workforce management and dialer applications to its Communications as a Service (CaaS) offering, as well as a new Web-based administrative interface allowing for client control over configuration and billing. The company says that since it transitioned its hosted service over to CaaS architecture about a year ago, it has seen subscriptions increase by about 55 percent. In the CaaS model, Interactive Intelligence takes on responsibility for application performance, including monitoring and maintaining all equipment and network infrastructure, which in turn reduces the strain on internal IT and Call Center departments.

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