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Cisco introduced the Spark Board, an all-in-one collaboration device that can be a screen-sharing presentation tool, a digital whiteboard and a videoconferencing display. The unit is designed to make it easier to set up and use connected conference rooms, and is a text messaging, voice, videoconferencing and presentation platform that runs completely in the cloud, with encryption. The Board, which has 15 built-in microphones, includes a 4K video camera with a wide-angle mode to show the whole room and a short-range setting to show the presenter. The 55-inch Spark Board runs $4,990, plus $199 per month for software and cloud services.
In a related story, Hewlett-Packard offers their Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms which is a highly compact Windows PC with a module especially designed for meeting rooms. The Slice works with the Skype for Business and Zoom videoconference services and comes with numerous add-ons:
- Bang & Olufsen audio module with a dual-microphone array and surround-sound speakers
- an optical disk drive
- VESA mount plate that lets you attach the Slice to the back of a display
- a collaboration cover that has buttons for starting a call, hanging up, muting the sound and adjusting the volume
However, HP doesn't include a camera package but you can use virtually any USB-based Webcam with the system.
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Microsoft just resurrected its free Windows 10 upgrade, but just for customers subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and E5 as well as Secure Productive Enterprise E3 and E5. These customers can now upgrade their Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs and devices to Windows 10 without the need to purchase separate upgrade licenses. The Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and E5 subscriptions cost $7 per user per month and $14 per user per month, respectively, or $84 and $168 annually.
Beachhead's SimplySecure Management System is a Web-based management tool allowing you to remotely secure iPhone and iPads, Android phones and tablets, Windows PCs, and USB storage. Features include:
- Customizable reporting of status and device risks/conditions
- Remote enforcement of password and security policy
- Full encryption of all sensitive data on the devices
- Immediate data access elimination with instant, administrator-enabled remote restoration
- Complete data wipe capability
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The ATM marks its 50th birthday this year thanks to a Scottish inventor named John Shepherd-Barron. However, an American inventor and businessman named Luther Simjian had released an ATM dubbed the Bankograph, a machine that could accept cash or check deposits at any hour of the day or night, in 1960 in New York City but it never caught on. Today there are an estimated 3 million ATM units in existence globally according to ATMIA.
Nigeria's Wema Bank has a mobile branch that includes two ATMs. While mobile branches are fairly common around the world, this one is unique in that it is solar powered. The new truck also features face to face branch services in addition to their two ATMs. A spokesperson for Wema stated that "being an environmentally responsible company, our mobile branch is powered by solar energy; a first in the banking industry.”
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According to a new survey from Cornerstone Advisors, a majority of community-based financial institutions expect technology spending to grow 1% to 10% in 2017 from last year as they look to improve the utilization of technology across digital banking, customer relationship management and IT systems. One of the top areas for improvement was mobile banking with nearly 50% of FIs planning to improve their mobile banking platforms, up from 42% last year. Another top of the list item is to improve utilization of network and server virtualization technologies.
While ATMs and online banking remain important customer touchpoints, some analysts predict that mobile banking will overtake all of them in the near future. In fact, it has already overtaken branch visits in the US. The trend is towards “anytime” financial awareness and access which is mobile's forte. Some observers now place mobile banking/payments among the five essential apps on the phone next to: search, social media, entertainment and messaging.
While you can easily prevent your Wi-Fi router from broadcasting your wireless network's SSID, some security experts do not recommend this approach. That is because even if you disable SSID broadcasting, the SSID will nonetheless still be included — unencrypted — in some Wi-Fi traffic, where it can be readily viewed by many Wi-Fi analyzers like Kismet, CommView for Wi-Fi, and Airmagnet. Plus disabling SSID broadcasting can have a negative impact on a large network`s performance because it can increase the amount of background traffic traveling over the network.
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TrapX Security is a deception technology provider that has a solution that they say helps detect, analyze and defeat new zero-day, targeted attacks, and malicious insiders. The TrapX DeceptionGrid analyzes attackers while they are contained within the trap`s environment. Traps imitate a variety of systems, including endpoints, servers, financial assets, etc. Their goal is to protect the internal infrastructure from sophisticated attackers that have breached the perimeter, thus protecting critical assets.
LogPoint Free is a complimentary version of LogPoint, which lets you ingest up to 350 events per second (eps), from up to 10 nodes. LogPoint Free has been designed to provide full SIEM (security information and event management) functionality. This includes continuously updated out-of-the-box compliance templates; search, analytics and the visualization of data; an unlimited number of users; alerting, reporting and dashboards; access to selected applications.
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Security:
Battling Security Fatigue – Working Towards Usable Security
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Cososys - https://www.endpointprotector.com
Read Roman Foeckl's comments: https://www.banktt.com/Cososys.pdf |
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EventTracker - http://www.eventtracker.com
Read A.N. Ananth's comments: https://www.banktt.com/EventTracker.pdf |
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Onbase by Hyland Software - http://www.onbase.com
Read Steve Comer's comments: https://www.banktt.com/OnBase.pdf |
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Millennial Vision - http://www.mviusa.com
Read Scott Cowan's comments: https://www.banktt.com/MVi.pdf |
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NetWatcher - http://www.netwatcher.com
Read Scott B. Suhy's comments: https://www.banktt.com/NetWatcher.pdf |
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Security Compliance Associates - http://www.scasecurity.com
Read Jim Brahm's comments: https://www.banktt.com/SCA.pdf |
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SentinelOne - http://www.sentinelone.com
Read Jeremiah Grossman's comments: https://www.banktt.com/SentinelOne.pdf |
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Buyer personas (sometimes referred to as marketing personas) are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. Personas will help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your specific audience. You can develop personas from social media monitoring, website analytics, customer surveys, teller interactions and contact center tracking. HubSpot has created a content mapping template that will help you learn how to use buyer personas and lifecycle stages to create targeted content: https://offers.hubspot.com/content-mapping-template?utm_campaign=Retire%20PDFs%20Project%20-%20Blog%20Editorial%20Calendar%20-%20Dec%202016&utm_source=HS-site
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
According to Aite Group, biller sites accounted for fully 73% of online bills paid by consumers last year, up from 62% in 2010. Meanwhile FIs only have a 27% share, down markedly from 38% in 2010. The ACH controlled 46% of consumer bill payments last year, credit and debit card payment accounted for a combined 30% share, while checks accounted for just 17%. All told, Aite estimates consumers paid 14.7 billion bills in 2016 worth $3.9 trillion.
Without a doubt, EMV is helping to drive down counterfeit fraud at merchant locations in the U.S. Visa states that their numbers show that counterfeit fraud has been declining—52 percent at chip-enabled merchants and 14 percent across all merchants. During 2016, the number of Visa chip cards issued in the U.S. increased by 92 percent, totaling 408.1 million cards, while the number of merchants who implemented chip-enabled terminals more than doubled, totaling 1.81 million.
Austria-based Erste Bank has implemented video-based identification of new customers. New customers with passports, national identity cards or drivers' licenses can identify themselves via video chat from their computers and mobile devices. They simply upload their photo from a government-issued ID and the data it contains is automatically transferred to the new application. Then during a video chat with a contact center agent, software from IDnow identifies the video caller.
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A session border controller (SBC) is a device regularly deployed in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks to exert control over the signaling and usually also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing down telephone calls or other interactive media communications. Some telecom experts believe that SBCs will become increasingly more sophisticated as more organizations switch over to Unified Communications (UC). They contend that in today`s zero-trust world, UC`s rich set of capabilities is becoming inherently more vulnerable to being exploited.
Allworx, a maker of VoIP communication systems for small to mid-sized organizations, announced what they are calling a new class of mobile-first business phones: Allworx Verge 9312, 9308 and 9318Ex Expander. Key mobility integration features include:
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Because they are on the front lines communicating with customers all day long, agents can be a treasure trove of knowledge and ideas both for the contact center and the rest of the bank. Some contact centers recognize this and setup cross-functional contact center teams that meet and collaborate with other relevant departments to exchange ideas, e.g., marketing. Some arrange specific meetings, others do it over lunch, while some schedule special fun events to encourage idea sharing. Contact center agents and managers may also be able help IT Departments with software and telephony improvement ideas.
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