Your source for the latest technology information of interest to community banks across America.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and stay on top of the latest technology trends in Hardware, Software, ATMs, Biometrics, Wireless, Online Banking, Marketing, Security, Internet Access and Call Centers.
Seagate released its latest Surveillance HDD (hard disk drive) that holds 8 TB of data which can store up to 800 hours of HD content captured by up to 64 different cameras simultaneously. The move to high-definition security cameras requires more storage capacity. For example, to record 24 hours a day it requires 45 GB of storage per day for a 1080p recording at 15 FPS (Frames per Second). Surveillance HDDs are designed to be more durable, with a 180 TB-per-year workload rating, than typical PC drives that are only rated for 55 TB-per-year.
QNAP announced the newest customer of its Silent NAS (network attached storage) fan-less series: the HS-251+. Geared towards small- and mid-sized organizations, it supports S3 system sleep mode and hard disk standby to save power when not in use. In addition, the HS-251+ offers two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. It supports up to two 8 TB 3.5" or 2.5" SSD or NAS SATA hard drives. Drive storage can be configured as RAID 1 or RAID 0.
Fujitsu has spent years developing their palm vein authentication system which is deployed in numerous locations, particularly ATMs in Japan. They have now adapted it to encrypt data, making the biometric scan an integral part of an encryption system and removing the need for encryption keys. Because Fujitsu's new system uses random numbers to convert the biometric data as part of the encryption and decryption process, unconverted data is not transmitted over a network. The company says that their system can be readily adapted to work with other biometric data such as fingerprints or retina scans.
~~~
Facebook at Work is the social media giant's software that is designed to encourage collaboration and improve the speed and efficiency of employee communications. Royal Bank of Scotland pilot-tested the technology and found employees worked together more efficiently, answered customer questions faster, updated colleagues better and collected a wider range of ideas for ongoing projects when using the service. Facebook at Work, which has the same look and feel as Facebook, is kept completely separate from employees' personal Facebook accounts. RBS is now rolling it out to all employees.
Batch Text File Editor is a powerful tool for bulk editing of text files. Some of the supported editing functions include basic replace, RegEx replace, multiple replace, multiple RegEx replace, insert text, delete text, move text, copy text, extract text, and format text.
~~~
The Diebold Irving system promises to quicken the cash withdrawal process to less than 10 seconds. The screenless, self-service Irving ATM dispenses cash without requiring a card, PIN pad, or card reader. Transactions are scheduled and authorized on the user's smartphone. Accountholders are identified via NFC as they approach the device, and gain instant access to cash through contactless technologies such as QR codes, NFC and iris-scan biometric technology. Irving is also considerably smaller than normal cash dispensing ATMs, suited to the growing trend among banks to shrink their branches.
HalCash North America announced the launch of Pin4 which is a mobile cardless cash ATM withdrawal solution. The platform supports P2P transfers and the ability for consumers to receive various promotions via a self-service model. It comes with patented dual-pin authentication and provides a reward mechanism for rebates, promotions, and rewards fulfillment.
~~~
MasterCard has introduced a new program that will bring MasterCard payments to a wide array of consumer products across the automotive, fashion, technology, and wearables categories. The program is an extension of the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) and the Digital Enablement Express (Express) program, and they say that any accessory, wearable or device can be payment-enabled and quickly scaled to millions of MasterCard accounts. As part of the program, MasterCard worked with NXP and Qualcomm to develop their technology.
MagicCube is a security startup whose software creates a virtual device for secure transactions within a user`s mobile phone. MagicCube`s software, which exclusively targets the mobile apps handling sensitive user data such as banking and shopping applications, works by embedding itself into other applications and securing the exchange of data between devices and the cloud. The software`s versatility allows it to be installed on any mobile device operating on any operating system and hardware.
~~~
Many bank executives are concerned that the optional cybersecurity assessment tool released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council this summer could become mandatory. Some contend that the tool is more elaborate and involved than necessary, and simply too burdensome. The tool has two facets: one that measures an institution's "inherent risk profile" and another that helps determine its "cybersecurity maturity." Maturity levels are categorized in this order:
- baseline
- evolving
- intermediate
- advanced
- innovative
InAuth announced the launch of its new fraud prevention network dubbed InExchange which is designed to provide insight into device reputation. InExchange works as an opt-in service, whereby participating businesses across multiple industries share known devices that have been linked with fraudulent activity as well as those with a positive reputation. InExchange is underpinned by the InAuth Security Platform and is available to both on premise and hosted customers that use the InAuth InMobile and InBrowser products.
~~~
Core Systems:
Supporting Omnichannel Delivery with the Core System
 |
 |
 |
~~~
MasterCard and Cardlytics announced an agreement to deliver targeted card-linked services to American banks. The new partnership will match Cardlytics card-linked marketing solutions and advertising expertise with MasterCard`s bank partners. The companies point out that consumers continue to show a growing preference for card-linked loyalty offerings. According to Mercator Advisory Group, merchant-funded rewards drove approximately $4.7 billion in U.S. credit card purchases in 2014 and are expected to grow at an annual rate of 20% through 2020.
~~~
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
A new study, “Instant-Issuance Payment Cards: Fulfilling Consumer Expectations for Immediacy,” finds that cardholders are 22 percent more likely to be very-to-extremely satisfied with their FI if they have received an instantly issued debit card instead of a card sent by mail. The Javelin Strategy and Research study also found that instant-issuance cardholders are more likely to believe their FI is innovative (64 percent vs. 48 percent) and a great finance partner (57 percent vs. 45 percent). Finally, up to 40 percent of centrally issued debit cards are never activated, but activation may reach 100% for instantly issued cards.
BofA, Wells Fargo, BB&T, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Capital One have formed a real-time payments network that is open to all financial institutions. As part of the plan, Early Warning will acquire clearXchange, the largest bank-owned digital payments network in the United States. They state that Early Warning is bringing together immediate funds availability, integrated authentication and fraud management capabilities into a single platform.
The Western Union Company has launched WU Connect which is a technology platform that integrates with leading consumer messaging and social media platforms to give users a way to transfer money worldwide. The WU Connect platform embeds Western Union`s global money transfer capability into third party digital platforms to provide users with the ability to fund the money transfer utilizing a debit card, credit card or FI account and direct the funds to a Western Union retail agent location around the world, and to a mobile wallet or FI account where available.
~~~
New browser malware dubbed “eFast Browser” works by installing and running itself in place of Chrome. It is based on Google`s Chromium open-source software, so it maintains the look and feel of Chrome. By some accounts it surreptitiously adds itself into software installers. A program called Unchecky claims to prevent issues like this in two ways:
- Unchecky automatically unchecks unrelated offers thus making it less likely to miss a checkbox of an unwanted offer
- Unchecky warns you when you try to accept a potentially unwanted offer, which makes it less likely to be accepted accidentally
New DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks are targeting NetBIOS name servers, RPC portmaps, and Sentinel licensing servers. In these reflection DDoS attacks (AKA DrDoS attacks), there are three types of players: the attacker, victim servers that act as unwitting accomplices, and the attacker's target. Akamai observed the attacks and noted that no UDP service is safe from abuse by DDoS attackers, so server admins need to shut down unnecessary services or protect them from malicious reflection. For all three attack vectors, upstream filtering can be used for DDoS mitigation where possible, otherwise a cloud-based DDoS mitigation service provider will be needed.
~~~
At ICMI's recent Contact Center Demo & Conference, ICMI released their latest e-book: ICMI`s Guide to Contact Center Metrics. It is based on findings from Understanding Modern Contact Center Metrics, a survey distributed to provide contact center professionals with the data, benchmarks, best practices and case studies needed to implement metrics that improve operations. It is complimentary and designed to help you identify and manage the key performance indicators that are best for your contact center.
~~~
