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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.

October 24, 2016

 


Hardware News

Converged systems, a recent trend in hardware, combine compute, storage, networking and the software workload all into one fully integrated system rather than piecing it together. However, typically converged systems have tended to fairly rigid in that suppliers only allow for a small handful of converged systems for a specific app or app workload. In response Dell says converged systems are too rigid in their deployment options and has come up with an on-premises offering it calls Validated System for Virtualization. They offer Validated Systems for Microsoft Exchange and Validated Systems for Microsoft SQL to provide turnkey solutions for email and database needs.

Seagate just announced two new BarraCuda drives—one of which now holds the record for being the largest-capacity 2.5-inch drive. The BarraCuda ST5000 pushes the capacity limit from the previous 4TB to 5TB, and is priced around $85. Seagate also announced a new 5,400rpm BarraCuda ST2000LM015 drive that conforms to the smaller 7mm standard used by many laptops. 

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Hardware Section Sponsored by
Millennial Vision, Inc. (MVi)

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Software Updates

Cisco Systems' Talos team has released MBRFilter that can protect the master boot record of Windows computers from modification by ransomware and other malicious attacks. In action, the software functions as a signed system driver and puts the disk's sector 0 into a read-only state. It is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions and its source code has been published on GitHub. Microsoft attempted to solve the bootkit problem with Secure Boot, but it does not work on all computers and for all Windows versions and does not support MBR-partitioned disks at all.

Sonasoft has released SonaVault 5.0, which they say is a major upgrade to its email archiving and eDiscovery software. The package now features a performance boost that archives email and produces complex eDiscovery searches eight times faster than previous versions. Sonasoft recently expanded its product offering to include email archiving in the cloud as well as data export and migration services for competing archiving solutions.

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ATMs/Kiosks

According to research firm RBR, ATM deployers are increasingly looking to separate ATM hardware and software purchasing due in part to the growing complexity in the self-service banking channel and opportunities afforded by more sophisticated software setups. The firm released a new report entitled "ATM Software 2016" that finds a significant driver of separate hardware and software purchasing is the institution's ability to choose from a broadened range of hardware vendors. The end result is that FIs are better able to select self-service devices that fit their needs, while simultaneously enjoying more competitive pricing.

The ATM Industry Association has published a new industry guide entitled “ATM Biometric Security.” The manual covers topics like different methods of biometric identification, from fingerprint to palm vein, biometric templates, biometric scanners, the concept of liveness testing, potential types of attacks on biometrics, accompanied by recommended countermeasures, things to watch in ATM biometrics and suggested reading and useful links.

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ATMs/Kiosks Sponsored by
Heritage Industries

 


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Wireless World

Mobile RDC (remote deposit capture) continues to grow in popularity. According to a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted for ABA by Ipsos Public Affairs, within the past year 1 in 3 Americans deposited a check using a mobile device. Survey participants reported their use of mobile RDC as follows:

  • less than once a month, 38 percent;
  • once a month, 26 percent;
  • twice a month, 27 percent; and
  • three or more times a month, 9 percent.

USAA has rolled out a new feature within its mobile application enabling consumers to use voice commands. Individuals with visual impairments can leverage the voice commands to receive guidance while completing standard banking tasks, such as notifying USAA of travel plans, accessing account balances and transferring funds. Plus users will be able to access a voice-guided deposit tool that will instruct them on how to position their smartphones to capture the most optimal photo of a check.

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Security Section

Netskope announced the results of a survey entitled “Cloud Malware and Data Breaches: 2016 Study,” conducted in partnership with Ponemon Institute. When asked about security worries, respondents` top concern over cloud security risks is loss of control over the security of data and end-user actions (49 percent), followed by loss/theft of intellectual property (47 percent), and compliance violations (39 percent). The survey also found that the majority of enterprises have not or do not know if they inspect their cloud services for malware. Of those organizations that do inspect the cloud for malware, 57 percent of respondents say they found malware in the cloud.

Dell estimates that there are approximately 1,600 security companies out in the market. In response, they have developed a new endpoint security and management portfolio, combining Dell Data Security Solutions, Mozy by Dell, RSA, and VMware AirWatch in a bid to tackle this complex market. The tech giant claims that their customers want to combine their security products and vendor relationships for three main reasons:

- To negotiate better pricing with more products from the one supplier

- Have a better opportunity to influence the vendor's product road map

- To be able to deal with one vendor for support

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Security Section Sponsored by
StrongAuth, Inc.

 

StrongAuth

 

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Leaders Roundtable

Online and Mobile Banking:

Digital Differentiation Strategies

 

 

 
IMM - http://www.immonline.com  
Read John A. Levy's comments:

 

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

 

 

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Technology and Marketing

Bank marketing departments have reasons to celebrate - it appears that their efforts have helped to convince more people to open bank accounts. The number of U.S. households without a bank account fell significantly in 2015, according to the National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households released by the FDIC. Seven percent of U.S. households were unbanked in 2015. That was the lowest share in the survey's history and a decrease from 7.7 percent in 2013 and 8.2 percent in 2011. 

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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design

Finn.ai is a white-label virtual banking assistant powered by artificial intelligence. The company states that their intelligent personal chatbot assistant uses machine learning with a deep financial industry data set to connect with customers by voice and text. They compete with other banking chatbot vendors such as Kasisto that help consumers actively manage their money with timely balance alerts, reminders when bills are due, budgeting and savings advice, and more.

Visa and Chain are partnering to develop a new blockchain-based platform dubbed Visa B2B Connect. The end result will be a new near real-time transaction system for the exchange of high-value international payments between participating FIs. Visa B2B Connect will be managed by Visa but will use the Chain Core enterprise blockchain infrastructure. In addition to Visa, Chain's strategic partners include Capital One, Citigroup, Fiserv and NASDAQ.

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Internet Access

451 Research has developed a Cloud Price Index (CPI) that helps bring transparency to the complex pricing models of public clouds, while also helping buyers assess the value of available options. Plus the CPI analyzes the costs associated with using various cloud options to determine when it becomes better value to use a self-managed private cloud instead of public or managed cloud services. The research firm concludes that commercial private cloud offerings, like those from Amazon, VMware and Microsoft, are currently a better deal in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) when fewer than 400 virtual machines are managed per engineer. However, when more than 400 virtual machines are managed per engineer, private cloud options are less expensive than both public cloud and managed private cloud options.

Sprint has joined AT&T and Verizon in offering SD-WAN (software defined wide area network) services. They are teaming with VeloCloud to manage the customer`s SD-WAN across any transport vendors - customers will be able to use new or existing Sprint MPLS or broadband internet connectivity, as well as bring their own broadband services from other providers. The telecom noted that SD-WAN enables organizations to lower their network costs while dynamically supporting converged services such as SIP Trunking, cloud services, and hosted applications.

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Call Centers

One statistic shows the continued popularity of texting: over 80% of adults text. Plus, SMS messages are generally read within 3 minutes of being sent and almost 98% of texts are opened. That this why more contact centers are supporting texting. Artificial Intelligence is making its way into contact centers to automate replies to texts (and chat messages as well). One company that is working on this is DigitalGenius that uses neural networks to predict the appropriate answer along with a specific confidence rating. Answers above the confidence threshold are automated, while the rest are served as intelligent prompts to agents. The agent approves or personalizes them, further training the model.

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