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Honeywell introduced its High Quality Analog (HQA) to its Performance Series lineup which includes nine different cameras and nine DVRs. Their video surveillance solution uses high-definition over coax (HDoC) technology, allowing users to use existing analog cable to get HD quality without the need to design new infrastructure or rip and replace wires. The company says that their system allows you to convert your existing analog cable, use your existing infrastructure, and see HD video without the expense of an IP system. HDoC technology enables 720p or 1080p high-definition analog cameras at short and long range.
According to many industry analysts, solid state drives (SSDs) will not surpass hard disk drives (HDDs) in either price or capacity any time soon. They contend that hard drives will remain the dominant mass storage device in laptops and desktops for years to come. HDD prices are expected to continue to drop as areal platter density increases - some even estimate that over the next five years, HDD prices will drop to as low as .01 of a cent per gigabyte of capacity. Meanwhile, SSDs of any grade will still be in the .14 to .17 cent per gigabyte range in 2019, according to research firm Gartner. However, SSDs are more than twice as fast as spinning disks and are far more reliable for mobile purposes because there are no moving parts.
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Software Updates
Matchlight is a data-intelligence system that crawls the Web for clients' sensitive data, alerting them when elements of their information appear on the Internet. The platform has two components: the previously mentioned Web spider that crawls the Internet with a focus on areas where stolen data is most often traded, and a digital fingerprint technique that computes one-way fingerprints of data. No modifications to existing data are required, and cryptographic hashing is used to make sure that no one, not even Terbium Labs which is the maker of Matchlight, can decipher the originating data. Plus, Matchlight can provide alerts to any of the popular SIEM systems already in place.
NICE Actimize has launched their Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Suite which support multiple Know-Your-Customer (KYC), CDD, and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) processes. It allows integration of negative news and third party data directly to the bank’s risk profiles and ties external data into the bank’s risk rating. Additionally, it permits branch personnel to assess risk in real-time during the onboarding process.
NCR issued an alert regarding so-called card reader eavesdropping involving their freestanding NCR Personas ATMs (not through-the-wall ATMs). The alert states that criminals are gaining access to the card reader by breaching the security of the ATM top box. No holes are drilled in the fascia to gain access; therefore the attack is invisible from the exterior of the ATM once the top box is closed. The ATM manufacturer notes that they offer an anti-eavesdropping kit for their Personas and SelfServ ATMs that encloses the card reader in a protective shield.
The ATM Industry Association has published a new study on recent global cash demand which shows that cash demand is increasing more than three times faster than worldwide economic growth rates. Their research shows that there was an average year-on-year increase of 8.9% from 2009-2013, compared to economic growth rates below 3%. Currency in circulation grew at 7.5% in the United States, which currently produces just under 25 million banknotes every day.
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Shoeboxed is an app that can be used to scan and organize receipts and business cards, create expense reports, track mileage and more. The Durham, NC-based company recently launched a packaged offering for banks to provide their customers. Once integrated into their mobile app, banks will be able to offer their customers a granular view of what they are purchasing. The company, which was formed in 2007 and currently works with over 1,000,000 accounts in 100 countries, believes that receipt capture will soon become a "must-have" banking feature, similar to mobile remote deposit capture.
Some banks are adding free fraud alerts into their mobile apps, while others are looking to make money from the service. Third parties such as BillGuard offer advanced identity theft protection on mobile devices. Their service is priced at $2.99/mo for the single bureau Pro version or $6.99/mo for the 3-bureau Ultimate. Additionally, BillGuard users get credit/debit card transaction monitoring, identity restoration services (via call center help), lost wallet recovery assistance, and SSN fraud alerts (Ultimate service only).
Apple’s Touch ID has helped to popularize fingerprint biometrics, but many forms of biometrics are gaining traction around world. According to London-based consultants Goode Intelligence, at least eight separate biometric technologies will be used by hundreds of millions of bankers around the globe in the near future. Their recent report entitled “Biometrics for Banking; Market and Technology Analysis, Adoption Strategies and Forecasts 2015-2020” states that biometrics is being adopted across all major banking channels: ATMs, call center authentication, online banking and mobile apps. A recent survey by Telstra reveals that Americans feel that biometrics would improve banking security - more than two-thirds of those surveyed said that biometrics would be more secure and help reduce the risks of fraud.
RAND Corporation’s latest study on cybersecurity notes that workers bringing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to work could add to future enterprise vulnerabilities. They say that this growing number of connected devices will add to an organization’s “attack surface.” IoT security problems might become compounded by the lack of processing power in IoT devices - they will not have the processing power to run encryption and authentication applications which means that hijacking them then might be easier. Plus tracking them could be very difficult since many of them will not be registering on the network with an IP address, like a smartphone, or PC does. The report says that these device may simply "piggy-back on a directly addressable device.”
Online and Mobile Banking:
Using Digital Technology to Create Value for Customers
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Cognizant - http://www.cognizant.com
Read Steven DeLaCastro's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Cognizant.pdf |
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Javelin Strategy & Research - http://www.javelinstrategy.com
Read Mary Monahan's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Javelin.pdf |
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The recently released J.D. Power 2015 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study found that consumers are clamoring for more digital technology. While personal connections still count, one big takeaway from the report was that banks must spend more money on digital technologies. Rocky Clancy, vice president banking services for J.D. Power, said that the "age old notion that you offer better service than big banks is diminishing." The report which surveyed around 80,000 people concluded that mid-size banks cannot afford to delay spending money on digital.
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
A handful of banks offer a forward-looking balance feature as part of their online banking platform. Yodlee recently released a feature called Sense that offers money management guidance. The software uses behavioral psychology principles and data clustering capabilities to help predict what the customer needs over time. It utilizes income, expense patterns, debt to income ratio, average cash on hand, and more to create a personalized user experience that predicts future account activity. Transaction data and customer input are used to provide actionable insights, tips, and recommendations to help each customer manage short and long-term financial goals.
Bento for Business is a company looking to help small businesses with their banking needs and is looking to partner with FIs. The San Francisco-based company offers a unique Small Business Prepaid MasterCard that offers business owners real-time control over employee spending. Company owners can add employees and cards, as well as turn the cards on and off in real time, and set spending limits by day, week or month. Plus owners can select locations where the card can be used, and owners control everything via an “Account Dashboard” that gives them an overview of all accounts in a graphic form that is easy to read and easy to manage.
Web filtering products that rely on "black listing" can never be 100% effective at categorizing all websites. For example, Google Drive has many URLs that are not in the file-sharing category which may allow users to access it even though the web filtering software is configured to block Google Drive. Some organizations use software that analyzes network traffic to the Internet to check on the effectiveness of their web filtering solution. In action, they export their firewall logs to a file, import it into the software, and it combs through all the traffic to websites and compares it against the risk database.
Silver Peak announced its Unity Orchestrator solution that gives customers the ability to centrally assign business intent policies and to secure and control all WAN traffic. They also offer an optional, on demand service called Unity Boost that accelerates application performance on an as-needed basis. Unity Boost has two key features: 1) latency mitigation to improve application response time across the WAN and 2) data reduction capabilities to compress and de-duplicate all traffic, which eliminates repetitive transmission of duplicated data.
By some estimates, Americans exchange over 900 text messages per month. For those that are not as text-crazy as younger people who may actually send more texts and skew these averages higher, it is still a convenient communication channel. Contact centers will certainly have to strongly consider handling texts going forward, especially when you consider a 2014 study conducted by Harris Poll and commissioned by OneReach found that 64% of consumers would rather text than call for customer support. Here are the activities where they see texting as valuable:
- Check order status (38%)
- Schedule or change appointments (32%)
- Make or confirm reservations (31%)
- Ask a question (30%)
- Find a store location (30%)
- Check balances or due dates (30%)
- Refill orders (29%)
- Reset password (27%)
