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July 13, 2009 - July 17, 2009
* Fiserv Adds Two CU Clients Fiserv, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced that they have signed two credit unions to core system contracts. Organized Labor Credit Union in Modesto, CA chose the CubicsPlus credit union platform from Fiserv, while Conservation Employees Credit Union in Jefferson City, MO selected the Portico credit union platform from Fiserv. Credit Union 24, the country’s largest credit union‐owned ATM and point‐of‐sale (POS) network, announced that Lynrocten Federal Credit Union, one of the oldest credit unions in the nation, has joined its network. Chartered in 1936 and headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynrocten Credit Union offers scholarships to members of the Lynchburg community along with premium financial products and services. Fiserv, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced that REALTORS Federal Credit Union, the country’s first Internet-based credit union, has launched a comprehensive online banking service using Corillian Online from Fiserv. The credit union, headquartered in Rockville, MD, opened in May 2009 and serves the more than 1.2 million members of the National Association of REALTORS, as well as their families. CU*Answers announced the roll-out of a new service to help clients complete third party due diligence on CU*Answers and partners involved with the cuasterisk.com network. The “Risk Management Report Generator” is a new Internet-based product which allows CU*Answers, Xtend, Audit Link, WESCO Net, and Lender*VP clients to complete their due diligence on services and products purchased from these CUSOs. IBM is bundling its x86 servers with VMware's newest virtualization platform, and offering financing packages to lower upfront costs. The move combines IBM's System x product line, including blade, rack and tower servers, with VMware's vSphere software. All of IBM's System x and BladeCenter servers are eligible for the special finance plan, and IBM plans to offer financing for its iDataPlex servers later this year. The new financing options let customers put zero down up front, and finance purchases as small as $5,000. Virginia Credit Union has deployed a variety of NetApp filers to deduplicate data and to replicate it from their Midlothian-based data center to their headquarters in Richmond. The NetApp filers host primarily the credit union's Microsoft SQL Server, and they have two FAS 6070 arrays with 90TB of total capacity in Midlothian and two FAS 3020 arrays with 50TB total capacity in Richmond. Since deploying NetApp's A-SIS deduplication, they have enjoyed a 300% to 400% reduction in the amount of data replicated. A California-based data backup vendor is rolling out a new disaster recovery and business continuity appliance for small and midsized organizations. We will feature it in the August issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
Symantec is expanding its de-duplication capabilities across several backup products slated to be released this year. They note that even during a recession, data growth is still huge. Symantec already offers de-duplication in its NetBackup and Enterprise Vault products, which bring de-dupe to archiving, backup and remote office backup. Going forward, Symantec says it will offer better compression of virtual machine (VM) images in NetBackup PureDisk 6.6, due out in September. Symantec has also added support for Microsoft Hyper-V to the current version of NetBackup. The software giant is targeting smaller organizations with Backup Exec 2010, which will integrate de-duplication with backup clients.
Display Concepts has redesigned their 8.4-inch sunlight-viewable LCD for ATMs and they say that the new monitors will improve readability, reduce power consumption, increase LCD lifetime and reduce costs. They claim that the model V084H1 high-brightness ATM monitor provides bright, full-color images that are viewable in direct sunlight. It is compatible with NCR, Diebold, Fujitsu and Wincor Nixdorf ATMs, and introduces support for the built-in automatic dimmer found in Diebold ATMs which automatically adjusts brightness in response to ambient lighting conditions.
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM A green PC maker out of the United Kingdom called VeryPC has added facial detection software to their machines that works in conjunction with the system’s power management features. Using a digital camera, the software, called PecoBOO, can turn off the screen and put the PC into sleep mode when no one is looking at it. However, VeryPC says the software doesn’t log any activities or act as a security beacon. According to a report by Cisco Systems, SMS phishing (or Smishing) scams have been getting worse in recent months. They bombard every phone in a certain area code with a phishing message sent by SMS (Short Message Service) telling the cell phone owners to call a fake 800 number that looks like it's from a local financial institution. They often use the open-source Asterisk software to set up a fake voice-operated system and pilfer information when people enter their account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information to authenticate themselves on the system. Nick Newman, a computer crimes specialist with the National White Collar Crime Center, notes that the scam subverts one of the main techniques that FIs and security experts have been trying to drill into account holder's heads for years. Newman said that "we always say, 'If you have any questions, call your bank, or they'll call you.' Well SMS is pretty close to calling your bank. It gets to the point where it's like, 'What do we tell people to do now?'"
Download this complimentary White Paper today! According to a recent report from PandaLabs, Trojans accounted for 70 percent of all new malware between April and June 2009. The report found a 6.2 percent drop in spyware, which now accounts for just 6.9 percent of all new malware. In contrast, adware rose significantly over this period, from 7.5 percent in the previous quarter to 16.3 percent. The increase is largely due to fake antivirus applications. The percentage of worms also rose slightly, now accounting for 4.4 percent of all malware. Trojans were also responsible for more infections than any other type of malware during the quarter. This type of malware was behind 34.3 percent of all infections detected by PandaLabs, an increase of 2.86 percent over the previous quarter. Online & Mobile Banking: Saving Costs & Increasing Marketshare
Microsoft has launched new CRM Accelerators for the company’s Dynamics CRM. The new CRM Accelerators from Microsoft are available for free to current Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers. The Social Networking Accelerator allows marketers to monitor and analyze customers' conversations on social networking sites, while the Portal Integration Accelerator connects Microsoft Dynamics CRM to an organization's website. Finally, with the help of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Netsize's SMS plug-in, marketers can fine tune and send SMS campaigns to a targeted audience. Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design The steady pace of consolidation of regional automated clearing house (ACH) associations is continuing with the merger of Mid-America Payment Exchange and Payments Central. The new entity, called Epcor, serves more than 2,300 financial institutions in all or parts of 12 states from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic. The merger will bring MPX’s non-ACH services - such as education and support for payment cards and checks, remote deposit capture, and fraud and risk-management support - to Payments Central’s credit unions clients. By some accounts, the US now has 18 remaining regional ACH associations. Aspect, a unified communications solutions provider, announced new enhancements to its UC applications. The enhancements include new instant-messaging capabilities, expanded presence functionality within the contact center, and increased integration with the Tellme on-demand voice portal. The new features are available through the Aspect Unified IP 6.6.1 platform product. The company said that these features augment the UC capabilities available via the UC applications' core queuing, routing, and reporting functionality. NICE Systems has introduced NICE Perform eXpress which is designed to deliver cost efficient call recording for regulatory compliance. NICE Perform eXpress caters specifically to the needs of branches offices and small to medium contact centers. Nice claims that their affordable system can be deployed in less than four hours per site, and is easy to use and maintain.
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2009: October 4-7, Las Vegas - Firefighters' National Credit Union Summit |
