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While Toshiba is exiting the consumer PC market, they are still committed to the small-to-midsize business market. The company announced the Tecra C50, which they say will offer the same performance of enterprise-class PCs but at an SMB price point ($580). Features of the C50 include a 15.6-inch display, options of either an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and 7 hour battery life. The system includes a built-in DVD drive, Kensington lock, dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11ac), full size HDMI and VGA ports and a full size keyboard and 10 key numeric keypad.
WAUSAU Financial Systems is teaming with Cummins Allison to offer banks the ability to capture checks and cash using just one scanner. Clients using Deposit 24/7 remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions can use the JetScan iFX high speed currency and check scanner. The JetScan iFX crops, rotates and orients checks at a rate of 400 documents per minute. It also processes cash at a rate of 1,600 bills per minute.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
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Software Updates
Some storage experts contend that the number one reason that most storage installations fail is due to lack of accurate information regarding the IT environment's performance, capacity and throughput needs. StorTrends iDATA is a software tool that runs in the background of your existing IT environment for 7 days. The company says that once installed the automated tool runs non-intrusively and will not disrupt any services or create any IO bottlenecks. After completion, the tool will generate a report file that contains key metrics of your IT environment; such as capacity utilization, IOPS usage, reads versus writes for volumes, network bandwidth performance, server statistics and application info.
The Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a helpful tool for any Exchange administrator. The ExRCA, as it is called, is a site Microsoft runs that functions as a remote client for Exchange, Outlook, the Autodiscover service and more. In action, you can test if remote clients can connect to Exchange, if your certificates are configured correctly, if your autodiscover records are provisioned correctly, if mobile devices can connect over ActiveSync properly and much more.
Zabbix is an open source software package that monitors servers and networks with an extensive array of tools. There are Zabbix agents for most operating systems, or you can use passive or external checks, including SNMP to monitor hosts and network devices. You'll also find extensive alerting and notification facilities, and a customizable Web UI that can be adapted to a variety of heads-up displays. In addition, Zabbix has specific tools that monitor Web application stacks and virtualization hypervisors.
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Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG) |
Fees for using out-of-network ATMs rose 5% over the past year and are up 23% over the past five years, according to Bankrate.com's 17th annual checking survey. The average cost of going outside the network is now $4.35 per transaction, a new high for the eighth consecutive year.
ATM critics argue that the ATM business is “stagnating,” as evidenced by a 1 percent decrease in ATM withdrawals per year from 2009 to 2012. However, the average value of ATM cash withdrawals is rising. While consumers made 100,000 fewer ATM withdrawals in 2012 than they did in 2003, the average dollar amount climbed from $85 to $116. ATM proponents also point out that 17 percent of all checking account shoppers indicate that a free ATM is a “must have,” according to research from FindaBetterBank.com. They add that the preference for the ATM channel has increased from 11 percent to 14 percent in the past year, according to an ABA survey in 2013.
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ATMs/Kiosks Sponsored by
Heritage Industries |
At the recent FinovateFall conference, a couple of companies were demonstrating mobile security solutions. Toopher demonstrated their expanded mobile authentication suite for web and mobile applications. The technology uses location and behavior to automate authentication, thus bypassing user names and passwords. When at home or in their workplace, Toopher automatically authenticates the customer via geofencing technology and features deauthentication when a user leaves the defined area. Meanwhile, Hoyos Labs is launching its Identity Assertion Platform mobile app that utilizes a user’s smartphone to acquire biometrics and replace log-in information. The front-facing camera on your phone recognizes you and allows access without a user name or password.
According to a report from Timetric, mobile payments will more than triple in market value (170%) from $480.1 billion in 2014 to $1.3 trillion in 2018 due to consumers’ growing preference for mobile devices and increasing Internet penetration. The report notes that back in 2012 mobile wallets were expected to be one of the most important drivers of mobile payments following their launch, but performed poorly in terms of their level of adoption. However, the research firm says that consumer awareness about the benefits of using mobile wallets is already increasing, contactless POS terminals are becoming more widespread and Apple Pay will speed up the process of adoption.
Rippleshot monitors millions of transactions daily and billions historically to identify where compromised cards visited a common merchant – the breached location. The cloud-based technology from the Chicago company uses a big data approach to detect breaches. The company says that their tools help analysts prioritize the reissuance of these cards based on threat levels, high spending status and expiration date – thus saving issuers from future fraud losses. They also help analysts create decline rules that can be implemented in their realtime decision engine.
There are many advantages to network virtualization:
- faster provisioning of networks
- easier management of networks
- more efficient use of resources
But network virtualization can have another major benefit as well: security. For example, VMWare's NSX helps secure traffic inside of the data center. One way NSX does this is with micro-segmentation. Part of the NSX technology allows new networks to be easily created. It also allows policies to be assigned to the networks, allowing only certain types of traffic to flow on that network. If an infected threat attempts to use the network, it will not be authorized to. And because the networks are segmented, even if an attacking agent gets on to the network, it will not have free reign within the data center, it will be confined to a single segmented network.
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 |
More and more organizations are investing into gamification as way to motivate people to learn more about something through a medium more contemporary than print, TV, billboards or radio. Some apps have a gaming component to teach children or adults about financial services. Some analysts believe that areas of banking that could be suited for games include teaching new customers about the benefits associated with a product and then graduating them to higher levels of the game as their banking relationship progresses. Some games permit players to upload their scores on Facebook and Twitter and thus spread the brand name further.
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Gemalto has launched Ezio Armored Application which is an entirely software-based solution that the firm says enables banks to deploy secure eBanking applications on any PC. Based on a locked down browser running within a dedicated desktop session, Ezio Armored Application establishes a secure connection to the eBanking website to protect against key logging and screen capture. This mechanism makes attacks such as man-in-the-browser or man-in-the-middle significantly more difficult to carry out. After downloading the application. customers access the banks' online banking site with the same experience of a traditional web browser.
Malauzai Software has launched its SmartwebApps platform which brings a native app-like experience to the desktop, offering the same functionality of Internet banking in addition to the advanced features and user experience of their mobile banking SmartApps. The app is device agnostic and offers the same features and functionality no matter how the account holder accesses it, be it through their smartphone or via the browser on their desktop.
A few hundred FIs currently offer and online mobile card controls, but those numbers should be increasing rapidly. New research from Mercator Advisory Group finds that the future for this technology is promising because the service offers improved account security in a convenient manner. The "Are Mobile Controls the Next Essential Product Feature for Credit Card Accounts?" report states that "there is potentially a very significant opportunity for credit issuers to use a more comprehensive feature set to capture spend from other payment types and decrease some customer service and fraud resolution expenses."
Saisei has unveiled what it calls the first product in a market known as Network Performance Enforcement. The start-up has a patented flow control technology that they say changes the way IP networks operate. Their software monitors and controls data flows between servers, virtual networks or physical networks. Saisei’s NPE solution can be thought of as a superset of WAN optimization, quality of service, network policy control, and analytics. While many IP networks are typically under 50% utilized, Saisei’s system touts utilization rates over 95%. All of the Saisei products can operate as a virtual image on a hypervisor or can be purchased as an x86-based appliance, and can be deployed virtually anywhere - in a data center, branch office, or WAN edge.
The Fiber To The Distribution Point (FTTdp) G.FAST technology is being designed to deliver high speeds to homes and business by rolling fiber to telephone poles or junction boxes and then relaying data over existing copper links. During recent G.FAST trials in the United Kingdom, downstream speeds of around 800Mbps were achieved over a 50 feet length of copper, combined with upstream speeds of more than 200Mbps. British Telecom says the technology could be a "self-install" product with no need for home engineering visits to set it up.
By some estimates, one out of 2,900 calls into a call center is from a fraudster. Unfortunately, many times these scam artists will succeed by tricking agents into altering personal details. The thieves will then commit ID theft, gaining access to customer information and even changing customer contact information so that the victims cannot receive alerts. Most use phone number spoofing software to avoid detection, and some even are sophisticated enough to deploy software to alter their voices, even the gender sound. In response many security experts are calling for both enhanced agent training and more stringent ID requirements before altering personal information over the phone.
