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New power saving monitors are making it easier to lower energy bills. While some older displays may consume over 100 watts of power, this new generation of monitors use just a quarter of that. Assuming the display is used for 10 hours every business day and that power costs 12 cents per kilowatt-hour (the national average), the monitors listed below average an annual electricity cost of $9.32. Here are three examples of 27" environmentally smart monitors:
- AOC's E2752VH
- Dell's UltraSharp 27 UZ2715H
- Philips' 271S4LPYEB
Western Digital announced that it has added a 6 TB model to its line of WD Purple 3.5-inch hard drives. These drives are meant for 24/7 always-on video surveillance systems with up to 8 hard drives and up to 32 cameras. Customers can purchase this drive now through select resellers, distributors and the WD Store for $329. They feature the company’s proprietary AllFrame technology, which they say improves playback, reduces frame loss and enables the drive to work with seven additional WD Purple drives.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
MVi |
Software Updates
AutoHotKey allows you to define hotkeys for the mouse and keyboard and remap keys or buttons. The utility is open source software and is completely free for personal and commercial use. It unites hotkey and text macros and offers a scripting-language, which is more powerful than any batch file.
The Database Performance Analyzer from SolarWinds identifies SQL Server performance issues most impacting end-user response time. The package can analyze and optimize server and application performance based on queries, sessions, servers and storage systems. The software, which uses an agentless architecture, also analyzes baselines, alerts, and storage I/O details to help correlate resources with response time.
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Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG) |
ATM usage may rise this holiday season due to the fact that Americans are very worried about card information being stolen in a merchant data breach. In fact, they are so worried that this is their top concern over any other crime they were asked about in a recent Gallup poll. Sixty-nine percent of Americans reported that they frequently or occasionally worry about card data theft in a retail environment. Gallup suggested that concerns about card hacking might affect consumers' shopping habits and they may begin paying more frequently with cash or prepaid cards to protect their identity.
RESLAM provides a keyless, protected and controlled entry to high security ATM enclosures. The Reslam system is built on three elements:
- a mobile app that allows the ATM worker to enter a PIN and the lock code into the app - this info and the device's GPS coordinates are then sent to a secure server
- a secure server application that asks for the lock's GPS coordinates, verifies that the authorized worker is in the immediate proximity and checks other submitted information
- an internally installed Reslam lock system. Once codes and GPS coordinates have been verified, access to the enclosure is granted, and a record of the interaction is stored on the server
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ATMs/Kiosks Sponsored by
Heritage Industries |
Mitek announced the availability of tools dubbed Restrictive Endorsement that are designed to reduce fraud in the mobile RDC channel. Under Restrictive Endorsement, Mitek asks that banks require mobile remote deposit capture users to endorse their checks with specific language such as for mobile deposit only or for mobile deposit only at ABC Federal bank. Mitek's algorithms could then check the deposited item for the prescribed endorsement.
The launch of Apple Pay is expected to drive adoption of NFC (Near Field Communications), according to Juniper Research. The research firm states that "Apple Pay will not only drive, but will create a ‘halo effect’ towards contactless payment in general. We still believe that in most markets this will primarily be driven by contactless card transactions, but that the greater awareness of handset contactless payments that Apple will generate will, in turn, result in an uplift in adoption and usage."
MasterCard is promoting MasterCard Nearby, an app that locates MasterCard ATMs and merchants, to help consumers find nearby stores that accept contactless mobile payments. They have taken their ATM Locator capabilities and built them into the MasterCard Nearby app so consumers can download one app and have the ability to identify contactless merchants, ATMs, and cash back with purchase locations all through one resource. The app also helps consumers find locations to reload prepaid cards and get cash back with purchases.
Even if username, passwords, IP address, and device identification all check out, there could still be account takeover happening. That is why more FIs are looking at adopting behavioral authentication tools as part of their mobile security strategies. This software is able to capture a mobile user's behavioral footprint when interacting with a device, such as the tilt of the user's hold, typing cadence, and method of swiping, pinching, and zooming. Companies involved in behavior based profiling include BioCatch and NuData Security.
Research from Intralinks Holdings and Ponemon Institute found that file sharing poses a major threat to enterprise security, and that senior managers at organizations are having difficulty setting and enforcing effective policies to safeguard against data leakage. Half of respondents (51 percent) aren’t convinced their organizations have the ability to manage and control user access to sensitive documents and how they are shared. The research also showed that employees are acting badly when it comes to data sharing and collaboration, routinely violating IT policy in order to get things done faster.
Core Systems:
Using Core Systems to Enable Superior Financial Performance
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Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network -http://www.bpinetwork.org
Read Dave Murray's comments: http://www.banktt.com/BPI.pdf |
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VSoft Corporation - http://www.vsoftcorp.com
Read Dan Barnard's comments: http://www.banktt.com/VSoft.pdf |
According to proprietary analysis from Diebold, every branch should aim for a target of $10,000 in total deposit balances per-square-foot. The company analyzed more than 500 branches of all sizes across the U.S. and found that at this level, any particular branch may not necessarily be breaking even from an investment payback perspective, but it should be positively contributing to the financial institution’s profitability in the current period. Marketing teams would need to focus on acquiring new relationships and securing more deposits from current customers for any branch that is below this number.
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
According to a new survey from the FDIC and the US Census Bureau, the percentage of unbanked households in the US is on the decline. The survey found that 7.7% of US households are unbanked, down from 8.2% in 2011, the last year the survey was conducted. The study found that nearly one in four households had used an alternative financial services provider (such as a check cashing or payday loan provider) in the last 12 months. Unbanked households are the fastest growing segment for prepaid cards, the survey found. The percentage of unbanked households that had previously used a prepaid card jumped from 17% in 2011 to 27% in 2013. Prepaid card products could offer an opportunity to draw unbanked households into the banking system, the FDIC concluded.
Siegel & Gale has released a study showing that “financial disruptors” provide a simpler experience than traditional financial institutions. The brand strategists at Siegel & Gale believe that simplicity of message, use, and operations attracts consumers and leads to success. The top 5 financial disruptors were 1) Square, 2) Venmo, 3) Google Wallet, 4) PayPal, and 5) Ally. Overall the top rated brand out of all categories was Zappos.
Many security experts predict that attackers will increasingly use encryption in order to try to evade security products. In response, many organizations now want to have visibility on the encrypted traffic, so they are deploying SSL proxies, which are incorporated into a firewall or a load balancer. The proxy terminates the SSL session with a remote server which means that SSL traffic can be analyzed for traits that might indicate an attack is underway. Gigamon says that they can run many more security checks on the decrypted SSL traffic than their competitors due to the fact that they can divert SSL traffic and analyze it without disrupting the flow of data by creating a copy of it and subjecting it to many more analyses. Meanwhile, other in-line products tend to only have a firewall, an anti-malware scan and intrusion protection system to maintain performance.
Asterisk is a free and open source framework for building communications applications and is sponsored by Digium. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk powers IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and is used by thousands of small organizations. The latest version is Asterisk 13 and includes improvements such as a new and improved Asterisk REST Interface (ARI), a re-architected bridging and media core, and remote administration enhancements.
Scammers are increasingly taking aim at call centers as financial institutions tighten up their online and mobile banking security defenses. One method that they are using is to obtain phone numbers that are only one digit off from the numbers in use by the FI's branches and call center. They then setup automated answering systems to answer in the FI's name and offer "free gifts" such as cruises, vacations, gift cards, etc. Before they can receive the gift, the caller must provide their debit or credit card information. Some institutions have multiple numbers under attack, and many are warning consumers about these activities and reminding them to carefully dial their correct number on their website.
