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BANK tech-trends News
 

May 3, 2010 - May 7, 2010

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

Marquis

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

Netgear released the ProSafe Quad WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall (SRX5308), a business firewall appliance that, at $500, is well priced to target the small- to medium-sized business IT budget. With an advertised speed of over 1Gbps and support for two different modes of load-balancing on its 4 WAN ports, Netgear wants to offer a speedy but low cost alternative to high-end enterprise firewalls. In addition to the 4 WAN ports, the SRX5308 also has 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for high-speed LAN access, one of which can be set aside as a hardware DMZ port if you have outward-facing servers. The SRX5308 supports up to 125 simultaneous IPSec VPN tunnels and 50 simultaneous SSL VPN tunnels.

In order to improve the performance of its servers, HP announced that it is overhauling their Integrity line and adding Intel Itanium 9300 quad-core processors. In addition, the new servers will feature HP's BladeSystem Infrastructure, support for HP's converged infrastructure (HP BladeSystem Matrix), and more than 100 other improvements. In fact, the company claims the new servers will offer a 450 percent improvement in reliability.

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Software Updates

The Blackbird Management Suite covers nearly every facet of Microsoft Active Directory management and is comprised of modules, which can also be licensed individually:

- Blackbird auditor. Monitors Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GPO) changes in real time.

- Blackbird privilege explorer. Shows who has access to which AD and Windows resources.

- Blackbird privilege manager. Lets data owners control access and changes to their resources without infrastructure changes.

- Blackbird protector. Protects against unauthorized and accidental modifications to objects in AD.

- Blackbird recovery. Provides real-time change monitoring and recovery to ensure the continuous availability of applications and access rights.

- Blackbird detroubler. Provides a stand-alone backup and recovery solution for Novell’s eDirectory, as well as the Active Directory platform.

 
Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)

 

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ATMs/Kiosks

Wincor Nixdorf announced the launch of an enhanced PC/E Terminal Security multi-vendor ATM security software suite. The enhanced suite, comprised of its PC/E Terminal Security Intrusion Protection and PC/E Terminal Security Access Protection solutions, can be deployed on any type of ATM in a multi-vendor environment, and supports banks in achieving compliancy with international security standards and regulations, including PCI standards and state data protection laws as currently in force in 46 states in the U.S.

A group of private investors recently purchased mid-tier ATM manufacturer Triton Systems. These private investors bought the firm for $7.5 million and intend to leave Triton’s key officers intact. Triton currently has approximately 180,000 ATMs deployed worldwide.

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Wireless World

The fourth generation of Verizon's Long Term Evolution network promises a five-fold increase in speed compared to today’s 3G mobile data networks. 4G LTE promises peak speeds of 100Mbps, but expecting that consistently is unrealistic. Verizon plans to consistently deliver five to 12Mbps with bursts up to 70 million, which is quite an advance over 3G’s two million or less. Meanwhile, AT&T said that its 4G LTE trials would begin later this year with commercial deployment starting in 2011, while Sprint is ahead of everyone with their Wimax technology that is already live in markets covering 30 million people.

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Security Section


Microsoft just published Version 8 of its Security Intelligence Report (SIR). Key points in the SIR are:

• Running updated software decreases the attack surface and increases general robustness. Attackers target Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) up to four times more often than the newer version IE 7.

• Windows 7 is another three times less likely of being infected by malware than XP SP3.

• Attacks against Microsoft Office make use of older vulnerabilities and can easily be avoided by keeping the software suite up to date. By applying the respective service packs, users can avoid the majority of Office file format attacks.

SNOsoft, a research team at cyber-security specialists Netragard, used Facebook, LinkedIn and job sites such as Monster and Dice to penetrate a "mid-sized" bank's security systems. The firm gathered valuable information from Facebook, mapping relationships between employees, vendors, friends and family. The social networking site also helped identify key people in accounts receivable/accounts payable (AR/AP) at the bank. To gather additional information, the SNOsoft team applied for an IT security job and used the subsequent screening to learn more about the institution's defenses. Based on the intelligence gathered, SNOsoft moved to penetrate the bank's systems by embedding an exploit into a PDF document and sending it to the victim's AR/AP department from its trusted IT services provider. SNOsoft installed its own back-door technology, deployed a suite of tools, and eventually gained access to desktops, servers and Cisco devices.

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Leaders Roundtable

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:
 
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:

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:
 
 
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:

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:

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

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

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Technology and Marketing

Commence Corp., a provider of CRM solutions for small to mid-size organizations, announced the availability of Commence Lead Scorer, the latest addition to its suite of CRM solutions. The company says that their lead scoring feature enables increased sales effectiveness by targeting high potential consumers. The Lead Scorer is an automated business process that ranks and scores leads based on a set of pre-defined criteria. The criteria consist of a series of customizable questions that are used to automatically provide a score for each lead based on the responses entered into the system.
 

Technology & Marketing Section Sponsored by
MARQUIS Software Solutions

Profitability Referral Tracking Full-Contact CRM

MCIF CRA/HMDA Compliance

Marquis

Marquis

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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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design


According to research by eCom Advisors, 48% of Americans are interested in replacing cash and checks with P2P payments for common needs such as sending money to a child at college, or out of the country, or for splitting the cost of a gift with family customers or friends. eCom Advisors recommends that banks position electronic P2P payments as a component of a payment and money movement portal. The firm tested the concept of an "ePayment Portal" - where consumers can transfer money, pay bills, conduct P2P payments, and track all their money movement from a single place online - for the research. The survey shows that 70% of those interested in this portal would be likely to use P2P payment services within it. Furthermore, 34% who express interest in the portal concept say they would be willing to switch to a bank that offers electronic P2P payments as part of it.

Fiserv announced a partnership with MoneyGram International that will enable consumers to pay a wide variety of household bills through bank websites the same day they are due. Consumers who pay bills at one of the more than 3,100 financial institutions that use the CheckFree RXP online payment service, which includes 23 of the top 50 financial institutions in the United States, will have access to the integrated same day payment option. Initially, bills from more than 100 well known national and regional companies will be available for same day payment, with the potential to add more than 1,000 additional bills based on consumer demand. Fiserv will utilize MoneyGram’s direct connections with billing companies to deliver the payments.

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Internet Access

F5 announced new solutions that apply load balancing, WAN optimization and security to virtualized environments. The company introduced a virtual version of its BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager application delivery controller. The traditional BIG-IP LTM appliance can be used for traffic on a physical network but not among virtual machines or within a cloud. So if an application is moved to a virtual environment, the virtual LTM can follow it and apply load balancing, content switching, security and acceleration to it.

Ringio's software-based phone system offers many PBX and call center capabilities for smaller banks. The phone software, also named Ringio, runs on the Adobe Air platform for compatibility with most PC operating systems and can deliver a large amount of information about a caller as soon as their call comes in. Ringio costs $25 per month per employee, with a minimum of four employees.

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Call Centers


Intellicomm, a provider of hosted unified communications, announced the addition of a new call queuing and automated call distribution (ACD) feature set in its Innoport hosted service. Innoport is Intellicomm's hosted UC service that centralizes all inbound phone calls, voice mail, fax and instant messaging communications. With the help of ACD functionality, banks can setup a virtual call center - complete with comprehensive agent and queue management capabilities online via the Innoport online interface. The new ACD feature set also includes agent wrap up time flexibility, multiple interjecting prompts for callers on hold, automatic agent check out trigger, routing of callers based on criteria, such as, skill based, as entered, round robin, most idle agent or least utilized agent.

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