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Seagate Preparing Dual-Actuator Hard Drive for Data Centers
As traditional platter drives become more dense, performance has decreased. Seagate plans to release a multi-actuator drive—the first such drive in 25 years. Seagate's dual-actuator drives—which it brands as MACH.2—allow drive arms to move independently of each other. This enables a hard drive to double its performance while maintaining the same capacity as that of a single actuator drive.
USB 4 Announced Days After USB 3.2
USB 4 is built on top of Intel's Thunderbolt 3 specification, but isn't expected to be in products until at least 2020. USB 3.2 is intended to bridge the gap. USB 4 is based on Intel's Thunderbolt 3 specification, allowing USB 4 to reach speeds of 40 Gbps, doubling the bandwidth of the USB 3.2 specification.
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How Blockchain Will Manage Networks
Ethernet networking technology doesn’t have any inherent security built in to it, and is also hard to manage because it's centralized. It’s out-of-date, and it needs revamping, researchers say. One attempt to address the issue is the Marconi protocol, which is a strategy to shift network and packet management over to a smart-contract, decentralized chain-based system.
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What ATMs and Open Source Have to Do with Payments Innovation
Red Hat has been working with KAL ATM Software to leverage a process known as virtualization that uses technology to uncouple hardware from the ATM’s operating environment. A Red Hat spokesperson claims that for “pennies on the dollar” subscriptions to virtualization can save hundreds of millions of dollars in tech investments, including those of the 15-year ATM cycle.
Off-Site ATMs Playing Increasingly Vital Role in Financial Inclusion
There were 3.3 million ATMs worldwide at end-2017, of which 51% were located away from branches. The number and share of off-site ATMs continue to increase, with over 15,000 new such terminals installed during 2017.
Fed Paper Looks at ATM's Influence in Decisions About Cash Use
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has published How the ATM Affects the Way We Pay, a working paper that examines the influence of the ATM on consumers' use of cash.
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Sprint Launches AI-Based Smart Messaging System for Enterprises
Sprint unveiled a smart messaging system that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help businesses communicate with consumers. The Sprint Smart Messaging system enables consumers to send questions to business landlines via text message. The system can provide answers for questions such as business hours or whether a product is available. Sprint said the system could also be used for more complicated tasks, such as scheduling reservations or appointments.
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How to Solve the Human Challenges of Cybersecurity
Organizations can change employee security behaviors by creating a strategic plan, according to SANS Security Awareness. To change security awareness behavior, security professionals must start with a strategy, answering these questions: What is the overall goal of the program? What objectives support that goal? What is the scope? What key metrics will measure success?
SafeGuard Cyber Launches New Tool to Detect, Defend Against Cross-Channel Cyber Threats
SafeGuard Cyber has launched a new detection capability that adds real-time cross-channel analysis to proactive scans across the digital landscape, including deep web sites, the dark web, and the social Internet.
BlackBerry Cylance Unveils Behavioral Analytics Solution
BlackBerry Cylance has introduced CylancePERSONA, a proactive endpoint behavioral analytics solution. The new solution, which expands the capabilities of the Cylance native AI platform, is designed to protect organizations against attacks involving stolen credentials and user impersonation by combining continuous biometric behavior and user conduct monitoring.
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Finding the Sweet Spot with Traditional and Digital Marketing
The author states that the reasons for the popularity of digital marketing are valid - it is a more effective strategy for targeting and segmenting a customer base. However, she adds that she is not ready to kick traditional marketing to the curb completely. In her opinion, the amount of your budget that should be assigned to traditional marketing depends on the industry in which you are working and how your buyer personas behave.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Pilot Project Demos Credit Cards with Shifting CVV Codes to Stop Fraud
PNC Bank is in the middle of a pilot project that aims to test out credit cards with constantly changing card verification values (or CVVs) to reduce online credit card fraud. The dynamic CVV is displayed on the back of such a card in e-ink and changes according to an algorithm supplied by Visa. The cards are being supplied by a company called Idemia, which announced its "Motion Code" dynamic CVV cards in 2016. Since then, Visa has detailed a specification for the dynamic CVV pairing, called dCVV2, and Visa is also a partner in getting this pilot project off the ground.
Eye on Contactless: CPI Card Group Sees ‘Gradual’ Growth for Dual-Interface EMV; a Cashless Forecast
Observers of the U.S. payments market who have been expecting a surge in conversions to dual-interface cards may have been disappointed as CPI Card Group, one of the nation’s biggest card manufacturers, said it expects “dual interface to grow gradually as a proportion of the U.S. market” in 2019. Despite its cautious prediction for dual-interface cards, the company said it expects the total U.S. card-manufacturing market to grow this year, due in part to reissuance of EMV cards and in part to growth, however modest, in dual-interface plastic.
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Spectrum Rolls out Its Nationwide Managed SD-WAN Service
Spectrum Enterprise has released availability of a fully managed SD-WAN service in the U.S. The service integrates a number of third-party vendor’s components. Nuage remains the SD-WAN provider, but it relies on Fortinet for virtual security services, Netcracker for virtual network function (VNF) management, and Cisco for services orchestration.
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The Metrics of Contact Center Productivity
This article contends that cost per contact is the most important measure of efficiency in the contact center. It states that the key factors that drive cost per contact can be roughly divided into four categories: 1) Agent productivity; 2) Channel mix; 3) Geography; and 4) Root cause elimination of contacts.
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