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.
Lenovo`s business laptops, also known as ThinkPads, offer multiple configurations and strong build quality. The Lenovo ThinkPad T460 is a solid choice for bank executives because it delivers a top-tier keyboard, a durable design, fast performance and a sharp 14-inch display (1920 x 1080 pixels). When it comes to security, it includes hardware encryption, an Intel vPro-equipped CPU, and a built-in fingerprint reader. The battery lasts a healthy 17 hours, and pricing starts around $800.
HP, along with 3M, has come out with Sure View which adds an integrated privacy screen to two of HP business laptops: the 840 G3 and the EliteBook 1040 G3. The lighting control film, which adds an easy-to-access level of privacy and security, adds about $75 to the costs of the notebooks.
~~~
A recent study by Softchoice showed that less than 1% of organizations have upgraded their Windows devices to Windows 10, even a full year after the OS was released. Their research found that 91% of the machines were operating with Windows 7, Windows XP holdouts were is second place with 5%, and Windows 8 came in third at 4%. However, one of the report's authors noted that "in addition to the security benefits, I think once organizations grasp the user benefits—such as touch and Cortana—we will start to see a boost in adoption."
Windows Server 2016 is still under development, but coming soon. There are numerous new features in Windows Server 2016, but Tom's IT Pro singled out these 10 as the most impressive so far:
- Nano Server
- Containers
- Linux Secure Boot
- Resilient File System (ReFS)
- Storage Spaces Direct
- Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) v4
- Nested Virtualization
- Hyper-V Hot-Add Virtual Hardware
- PowerShell Direct
- Shielded VMs
LANGuardian from NetFort is deep packet inspection software for investigating, monitoring, and reporting on network and user activity. LANGuardian is a passive network traffic analyzer that connects to a SPAN port, network TAP or port mirror. It can be downloaded and deployed on your own hardware, VMware or Hyper-V. The package can be used to:
- Troubleshoot bandwidth issues on the LAN and WAN
- Perform network or user forensics on past events
- Investigate activity on Windows file shares
- Keep track of user activity on the Internet
- Look inside network packets with wire data analytics
~~~
According to the “Retail Banking Research: Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2020” report, there are currently over 3.1 million ATMs in operation worldwide, and these ATMs deliver over $14 trillion USD via 92 billion individual transactions. Meanwhile, the installed base of machines keeps growing at a healthy rate: on average 280 new ATMs are installed each day globally by all manufacturers.
POSB in Singapore is currently testing one of the most sophisticated ATMs in the world. The video teller machines will be capable of providing round-the-clock branch banking services, with the option of “face-to-face” assistance from tellers via live video streaming. The POSB VTMs are also able to dispense Internet banking security tokens as well as debit cards instantly. This latter feature should significantly help take a load off of their branch network because the bank sees some 45,000 requests per month for replacement debit or ATM cards. In terms of security, the machines feature biometric finger vein scanning.
~~~
Bill.com and Aite Group have published new research on small business mobile banking and they conclude that community banks must work harder to provide better mobile apps or risk losing business. The report`s authors conclude that most existing mobile app offerings for small businesses do not provide adequate detailed account and transaction history, payment authorization capabilities, check management, fraud identification, or remote check deposit.
The FBI says that they are seeing new types of malware that specifically targets mobile banking apps for the purposes of pilfering account credentials. The malware often gets onto a phone when a user clicks a text message from an unknown source or taps an advertisement on a website, and then it lays dormant until the user opens a banking app. The malware then creates a customized overlay on the authentic banking app which allows them to follow a user`s movements on the phone and capture username and password.
~~~
Same day ACH, which is scheduled to begin processing Sept. 23 with ACH credits, will divide the current once-a-day settlement process into multiple windows, which means FIs will have less time to evaluate questionable payments. In response, Guardian Analytics announced the launch of what they are calling the industry's first real-time ACH real-time solution to protect against fraud risk created by same day ACH. By monitoring originated or received files including batches and batch entries for suspicious behavior, Guardian Analytics ACH-ODFI Real-time and ACH-RDFI Real-time solutions intervene by automatically holding high risk batches for further review, and expediting low risk batches for further processing.
The FBI launched its Bank Robbers website (BankRobbers.fbi.gov) back in 2012 that features a gallery of unknown robbery suspects. Now they have taken it a step further by launching their mobile Bank Robbers application for iPhones (plus iPads and iPods) and Android smartphones. Using the app, robberies can be sorted by the date they occurred, the category they fall under, the FBI field office working the case, or the state where the robbery occurred. Users can also select push notifications to be informed when a robbery has taken place near their location. The FBI notes that there were 4,091 robberies, burglaries, and larcenies committed in 2015 under the federal bank robbery statute in a variety of financial institutions.
Bitglass looked at all breaches in the financial services sector since 2006, and found that lost and stolen devices account for just over 25% of breach events. While hacking accounted for a disproportionate number of individuals affected by financial services breaches, only 1 in 5 leaks were caused by hacking. Other breaches were the result of more human issues - unintended disclosures (14%), malicious insiders (13%) and lost paper records.
~~~
Digital Differentiation Strategies
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
Javelin Strategy & Research - http://www.javelinstrategy.com
Read Mark Schwanhausser's comments: https://www.banktt.com/Javelin.pdf |
 |
|
RLR Management Consulting - https://rlrmgmt.com
Read Mitch Razook's comments: https://www.banktt.com/RLR.pdf |
~~~
Adobe Creative Suite is a software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications, and each edition consists of several Adobe applications, e.g., Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere Pro or After Effects, InDesign, and Illustrator. Back in 2013, Adobe announced that CS6 would be the last version of the Creative Suite, and that future versions of their creative software would only be available via their Adobe Creative Cloud subscription service. The cloud service ranges from $9.99 per month to $19.99 per month to $49.99 per month.
~~~
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Yantra Financial Technologies, a financial technology firm specializing in designing, developing and managing electronic payment systems, says that they enable lenders to deliver funds in real time via their BlastPay solution. With BlastPay, disbursements can be initiated using application programming interfaces (APIs) and submitted across multiple channels including cards, ACH and internal payments. The Topeka, KS-based company states that “by delivering funds as soon as a loan application is processed, lenders can differentiate their services and experience a significant competitive advantage, and consumers no longer have to shift their finances around while waiting for a loan to be processed.”
According to the FDIC, among Americans between the ages of 25 and 35, one in eight was unbanked in 2013. Some analysts believe that they are perfect targets for prepaid cards. Regardless of banking status (or income level), Millennials are big fans of prepaid cards: 45% of them own general purpose reloadable prepaid cards. Increasingly, these cards use smartphones to support mobile check deposit and sophisticated money management tools.
~~~
By some estimates, about 25% of all websites are built on WordPress. WordPress has a tremendous amount of plugins, however, more than half of WordPress security breaches happen because of vulnerable plugins. Of course, plugins, must be kept patched, but before you consider adding a plugin to your website, it is advisable to see that is has at least 10,000 active installations and good ratings (four of five, for example). If your bank uses WP Engine, which is a hosted service provider specifically tailored to WordPress websites and apps, they will automatically remove harmful plugins and update installed plugins as soon as updates become available.
Stateful packet inspection (SPI), also known as shallow packet inspection technology, is rapidly being replaced by deep packet inspection (DPI) technology. Many analysts attribute this growth to the following two factors:
- Increased adoption of DPI in IP fraud detection
- Use of DPI in traffic filtering for regulatory compliance
~~~
Five9, a provider of cloud-based software for the enterprise contact center market, announced the availability of Summer Release 2016, the latest version of their Virtual Contact Center. They say that the solution supports integrated multimodal communications - voice, video, web, chat, email, click-to-call, callback, social, messaging and mobile. Organizations can see what visitors are doing live on their website, in their mobile applications or with agents, and the new version can push pertinent web pages to visitors. It also supports screen sharing by allowing the visitor or the agent to share their computer screen for the other to see.
~~~
