Credit Union tech-talk News

May 19 - May 23, 2008

• General News
• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Biometric Digest Highlights
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers
• Conferences

* Innovative Strategic Solution to Distribute Sydel's VendorXpert
* Symitar Offers nCipher Encryption Appliance
* Compliance Coach Launches CompliancePal
* Sollen Technologies Partners with Harland Financial Solutions
* MVi Credit Union Clients Appear on CNBC

Innovative Strategic Solution announced that it has signed an exclusive licensing and sales partnership agreement with Sydel Corporation to distribute VendorXpert, a software solution that was specifically created to assist credit unions in addressing regulatory concerns regarding vendor due diligence. The solution is web-based and allows credit unions of any size to develop a vendor assessment methodology and manage the relationships moving forward using a risk based approach that encompasses enhanced due diligence.

Credit unions served by Symitar will now be offered a storage encryption appliance from nCipher. Symitar, which provides software systems and related services to credit unions, says that nCipher's CryptoStor has already been deployed across various credit unions including Lockheed Federal Credit Union. 

Compliance Coach, a provider of automated regulatory compliance solutions to the financial services industry, has launched CompliancePal, a Web-based software that enables easy compliance with the new FACT Act Identity Theft Red Flags Rule. CompliancePal walks a user through a series of questions and produces: the required risk assessment, the mapping of red flags to appropriate detection and response procedures, the written program, the training materials and the compliance status report, and virtually everything necessary to pass an audit. 

Sollen Technologies, an Internet-based application services provider of product, pricing and best execution capabilities for the mortgage industry, has entered into an alliance relationship with Harland Financial Solutions. Sollen’s pricing engine will integrate with Harland Financial Solutions’ Web-based Interlinq E3 loan production platform, providing users with an added tool to ensure the quality of loan originations. Atlanta-based HFS provides a range of electronic data processing and other services to more than 7,000 financial institutions.

Millennial Vision Inc. (MVi) and two of its credit union clients appeared nationwide on CNBC on May 18. A value-added reseller of Laserfiche Document Imaging Software, MVi featured two of its clients using its suite of document management and business continuity products. Family First Federal Credit Union and Granite Credit Union provided real-life examples of how they and their members have benefited from these electronic services. 

Hardware News

For many years, 3.5 inches has been the reigning size of disk drives for storage arrays. Now, however, smaller, more efficient 2.5-inch SFF (small form factor) drives are gaining popularity. For example, Infortrend recently released the EonStor B12S storage array that comes with up to 12 SAS (serial attached SCSI) SFF drives. This system delivers performance and reliability comparable with large arrays - along with a variety of redundancy features - all within a smaller footprint and with lower energy consumption. While 3.5-inch drives now come in 1TB capacities, SFF drives today have maxed out at 500GB. However, they are rapidly making capacity gains, and have kept pace in regards to speed: You can now buy 15,000-rpm SFF drives.

If your credit union is looking at a new fire suppression system or upgrading your outdated system in your data center, you may to consider the Aero-K fire suppression system. Aero-K aerosol generators are being widely adopted in the Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries because proponents say that they extinguish fires in seconds and protect electronic equipment, media, and personnel. They claim that Aero-K is ecologically friendly, cleans up easily, doesn’t harm electronics and is significantly more effective than Halon and other Halon alternatives.

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ATMs/Kiosks

IBM has introduced a front office kiosk for branches that enables members to interact with a virtual teller. The virtual teller appears on a screen and can help members fill out and sign forms and provide support and deliver specialized advice. The system, which was developed by the IBM Bari research laboratory in Italy, is designed to work across a branch network from a central site. The kiosks can support branch staff, especially at peak hours, or even replace tellers, says Big Blue.

When most people think about ATM operating systems, the first thoughts that often come to mind are the legacy OS/2 system and the newer machines running some flavor of Windows. However, some institutions in Brazil are embarking on an open source odyssey. For instance, Banco do Brasil plans to migrate their huge ATM fleet to the GNU/Linux operating system. This is no small task when you consider that they support about 40,000 machines that are handling close to 4.6 billion transactions per month. The bank has deep experience in Linux - all of its 5,500 servers are running Linux.

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Research firm Frost & Sullivan is reporting that the use of biometrics in financial institutions is growing worldwide. They note that in North America and Europe, regulatory compliance drives the increasing adoption of biometrics, while biometric-enabled ATMs have become popular in Japan and have seen adoption in India, Latin America, and the Middle East. The firm says that financial institutions are looking to adopt biometrics to maintain regulatory compliance, and that "these end users are beginning to realize the advantages that biometrics offer which enhances security, time efficiency and convenience." 

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The Federal Trade Commission plans to hold a Town Hall meeting to look at consumer protection issues stemming from the growing use of contactless devices. Contactless payment devices, which use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to let users make low dollar-value purchases by holding an RFID-enabled device (such as a smart card, key fob, or mobile phone) in proximity to a reader, are increasingly available at gas stations, retail stores and highway toll systems. Topics for the Town Hall meeting will include: 

• An overview of various contactless payment devices; 

• Consumers’ understanding of contactless payment capabilities and potential risks, and the need for further consumer education; 

• Security and privacy threats and proposed solutions; 

• Emerging practices and technologies that may shape the contactless payment marketplace over the coming years. 

In a related story, chipmaker Inside Contactless just announced it has shipped more than 50 million MicroPass chips for contactless payments since introducing the product in November 2005. Yet a number of observers point out that consumer adoption remains an unanswered question about contactless technology. Even though almost 25 million credit and signature-debit cards with contactless functionality have been issued, some analysts contend actual usage is very low. These analysts blame a number of factors for the lack of consumer uptake, including limited marketing and the fact that merchant acceptance is far from universal.

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IDology, a provider of identity and age verification solutions, announced that its ExpectID software helps organizations comply with the upcoming Red Flag Regulations. In addition to being used to verify the identity of new members, IDology says that their services will automate the process of verifying the identity of existing members on change of address requests. 

PC Magazine has compiled a list of the 10 most commonly used passwords by computer users. Some are understandable – like numbers 1, 2 and 3 (see below) – while others (such as 6 and 9) are bit unusual:

1. password 
2. 123456 
3. qwerty 
4. abc123 
5. letmein 
6. monkey 
7. myspace 1 
8. password 1 
9. blink182 
10. (your first name)

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Security:

Perimeter, Host and Endpoint Security – Finding the Right Mix

Arcot - http://www.arcot.com   Read R. 'Doc' Vaidhyanathan's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Arcot.pdf

Astaro - http://www.astaro.com Read Alex Quinonez's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Astaro.pdf

Code Green Networks - http://www.codegreennetworks.com   Read Brian Czarny's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/CGN.pdf

Digital Resolve - http://www.digital-resolve.net Read Dennis Maicon's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/DigitalResolve.pdf

e-DMZ Security - http://www.e-dmzsecurity.com   Read Kris Zupan's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/e-DMZ.pdf

Galaxy - http://www.fiserv-galaxy.com Read Vince Francone's comments:     http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Galaxy.pdf

Harland Financial Solutions - http://www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com   Read Peter McKellar's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/HFS.pdf

HEIT - http://www.goheit.com   Read Dan Holt's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Heit.pdf

Integrated Computer Solutions - http://www.icsinc.com   Read Stephen Goldsby's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/ICS.pdf

MagTek - http://www.magtek.com   Read Kiran Gandhi's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/MagTek.pdf

Netsecuris - http://www.netsecuris.com   Read Leonard Jacobs' comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Netsecuris.pdf

Network Box - http://www.networkboxusa.com   Read Pierluigi Stella's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/NetworkBox.pdf

Perimeter eSecurity - http://www.perimeterusa.com   Read Kevin Prince's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Perimeter.pdf

Proofpoint - http://www.proofpoint.com   Read Sandra Vaughan's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Proofpoint.pdf

Sydel - http://www.sydelcorp.com   Read Antonio Gonzalez's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Sydel.pdf

TraceSecurity - http://www.tracesecurity.com   Read Jim Stickley's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/TraceSecurity.pdf

TriGeo Network Security - http://www.trigeo.com   Read Michelle Dickman's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/TriGeo.pdf

ZixCorp - http://www.zixcorp.com   Read Dena Bauckman's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Zix.pdf

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Microsoft just announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, an on-demand CRM service. The software giant says that their on-demand customer relationship management service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a Web browser or directly into Microsoft Office and Outlook. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is initially packaged in two service offerings: Professional and Professional Plus.

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The Federal Reserve Bank and The Clearing House Payments Company have announced plans to implement enhanced message formats to accommodate both cover payments and payments containing business remittance information on their respective wire transfer systems, the Fedwire Funds Service and CHIPS. These changes are designed to ensure full transparency of cover payments by November 2009, and by the fourth quarter of 2010, these wire transfer message formats will be expanded to permit more characters for cover payment information and business remittance information. 

Fiserv announced the release of its CheckFree PaymentView solution, a web-based payments monitoring system with a dashboard view across existing check, cash, wire, Automated Clearing House (ACH), credit and debit card activities. The PaymentView solution features a series of key modules, including: 

• Centralized end-to-end check monitoring, including source capture monitoring
• Real-time business process monitoring for more comprehensive compliance and risk management
• Real-time alerts about operational events that have the potential to result in losses

Just about everyone has heard of RDC (remote deposit capture) for checks by now, but a North Carolina-based company has come out with a new service for financial institutions and merchants dubbed RCC (remote capture of cash). We will cover it in the June issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.

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AT&T is targeting small organizations with their new AT&T U-Verse for Business service. The company is offering tiers from 1.5Mbps downstream and 1.0Mbps upstream for $40 per month up to 10Mbps/1.5Mbps for $100 per month. The service, initially offered in 40 markets served by AT&T, is much less expensive than what a T-1 line typically costs in the same place. As an added bonus, AT&T is providing a single Wi-Fi gateway for the office, and unlimited use on the AT&T Wi-Fi Basic network, which is Starbucks, McDonald's, Barnes & Noble, and airports that AT&T operates.

Microsoft Response Point, an alternative to traditional PBX solutions, is an in-house phone system that includes a base station and "traditional looking" phones with Windows XP Embedded (XPe) technology. You can add up to 50 phones, and easily add, remove and update employees. The base station (which can currently come from one of three different vendors: Quanta, D-Link, and Aastra) acts as a router between your external phone line and internal network. It comes with an automated assistant that can handle speech recognition and voice navigation to allow for call forwarding and voice mail. It even has the ability to offer simple information, such as your credit union's fax number. In addition, there's a Response Point directory, which can work directly with Outlook contacts. A base kit and five phones goes for about $2,500, with additional phones running about $150 each.

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For call center workers, there is a significant amount of training that is involved to ensure that the person hired to fill an agent position is able to complete the duties of the job. According to FurstPerson, a candidate’s work habits can be analyzed before he or she is hired. The firm offers a solution, AutoScreen Plus, that enables the hiring manager to use biographical data assessment methodology to quickly screen candidates so that they can be moved onto the next stage in the hiring process, or eliminated from consideration. FurstPerson claims that their Web-based biographical data assessment tool reviews a person’s work habits by asking 50 questions that measure a person’s dependability, personality, computer use, resiliency, frustration tolerance, soft-sell persuasion, attention to detail and conscientiousness. AutoScreen Plus provides immediate scoring to eliminate potentially poor hires from consideration early in the process.

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Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2008:

June 5-6, Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference

October 15-18, Las Vegas - Firefighters' National Credit Union Summit

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