Credit Union tech-talk News

January 8 - January 12, 2007

• 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

* USERS Launches DataSafe ViewPoint Solution for Data Access
* Mission FCU Selects Learn.com’s LearnCenter Platform
* Former USERS President John Schooler Joins Akcelerant
* Zix Signs Members Heritage FCU

USERS Incorporated, a business unit of Fiserv Inc., has launched the DataSafe ViewPoint solution to provide credit unions with easy, secure access to information tailored to end users’ specific needs. DataSafe ViewPoint uses the SQL-compliant Caché database that powers USERS’ core processing system to provide non-technical staff members with access to information from their desktops. Credit unions can use the software to tailor data views and reports to different employee groups based on their job functions, with views tailored at the group or individual employee level. 

Learn.com, a leader in on-demand workforce development and productivity, announced that Mission Federal Credit Union, which serves the San Diego community, has selected the LearnCenter platform, a workforce productivity suite, to provide training for its employees dispersed throughout 22 San Diego County branches. LearnCenter provides an entire suite of employee measurement and training products, from pre-hire to retire. The LearnCenter platform integrates all functions in one centralized system and employees have only one login to all training content.

John Schooler, former president of USERS, has agreed to join Akcelerant Software as the SVP of Consulting. Akcelerant, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, serves the financial industry with data warehouse, workflow and business process automation solutions. 

Dallas-based ZixCorp, a leading provider of hosted e-mail encryption and e-prescribing services, announced the signing of Members Heritage Federal Credit Union of Lexington, KY. Zix’s hosted e-mail encryption service supports five encrypted delivery mechanisms, including S/MIME, TLS, OpenPGP, secure portal and ‘push’ delivery. 

Hardware News

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced that they will ship a 3.5-inch-diameter 1 terabyte drive for desktops next month. The Deskstar 7K1000 will cost $399, or about 40 cents a gigabyte. Hitachi will also come out with a similar 750GB drive. Rival Seagate Technology will come out with a 1 terabyte drive in the first half of 2007. The boost in capacity for desktop drives comes in part through the introduction of perpendicular recording technology to 3.5-inch-diameter drives. 

If your credit union is ready to make the move to a backup generator, you may find them hard to find. Some analysts say that due to new EPA emission requirements that went into effect at the start of this year, backup generators have both become pricier and harder to find - some manufacturers have heavy back orders right now. Major power outages in 2006 in Seattle, St. Louis and Denver have also fueled demand. While many people believe that underground power lines would greatly increase reliability, they have numerous disadvantages. Experts say that extensive studies by electrical utilities and third parties show that installing underground power lines, especially high-voltage ones, can cost up to $20 million per mile, which is about 10 to 20 times more than stringing them overhead. Plus repairing underground wires takes longer (especially if they have been inundated in salt water brought in by hurricanes), underground lines quickly build up heat, and they are also vulnerable to being accidentally dug up.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Dallas-based Morphis is targeting ATM deployers with their currency supply chain management software. Their software handles cash demand analytics and fulfillment logistics. The firm allows credit unions to manager their cash in three ways: purchase, managed ASP Hosting or simple web interface. 

There are two basic types of card "captures" at an ATM: 1) a command capture or 2) a malfunction capture. Command capture happens when the issuer of the card has directed that the card be taken out of circulation because it has been hot-listed or for some other reason. Malfunctions occur when a card becomes jammed for some reason (men may experience this because the card tends to become bent from being stored in their wallet), or the card transport fails for some other reason. Another possibility is that the cardholder walks away and leaves the card. Every EFT network has its own policy on how to handle captured cards depending on how they were captured.

CU Anytime, with 29 credit unions and 168 ATMs throughout New Mexico and portions of Texas and California, and CO-OP Financial Services, which operates the country's largest surcharge-free network of credit union ATMs (CO-OP Network), have formed a new organization – CO-OP ATM Services LLC. The joint venture will develop an array of ATM management services for credit unions: cash services (armored carriers), first-line maintenance (not requiring repair, such as jammed cards or running out of paper), second-line maintenance (requiring a technician), as well as ATM purchasing placement and installation. Another recently developed service is the proofing, balancing and clearing of imaged ATM deposits through check imaging. 

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LaCie unveiled a new biometric storage solution with triple interface and triple security levels. The LaCie d2 SAFE Hard Drive is equipped with a biometric sensor, 128-bit AES hardware encryption technology, and chain lock port for maximum protection against unauthorized use. The 500GB drive supports FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0.

BioPassword, Inc., a software company that provides secure authentication and anti-fraud solutions based on the behavioral biometric of keystroke dynamics, announced a partnership with NAFCU Services Corporation, a subsidiary of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, to offer and promote BioPassword's two-factor authentication solution for strong authentication and compliance with federal regulations. BioPassword authenticates individuals based on their typing rhythm and their products include BioPassword Internet Edition for multi-factor authentication in web-based environments and BioPassword Enterprise Edition for multi-factor authentication in Active Directory networks. 

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Sprint is targeting financial institutions with both their mobile and wireline business applications. For example, Sprint's Mobile Loan Officer enables financial institutions to extend their existing office and loan origination applications to a mobile sales force. With their Wireless ATM services, Sprint says that financial institutions can lower ATM costs and install ATMs at remote locations quickly and easily. Finally, they are touting their Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solutions as a way to improve operational efficiencies and lower costs. 

Laptops, BlackBerrys, cell phones, smart phones and PDAs are inexpensive and ubiquitous these days. Without a doubt, critical information is leaking onto mobile devices whose risk of loss or theft is much higher than it is for PCs at the office. In the February issue of Credit Union tech-talk, we will cover some concrete steps a credit union can take to secure the data on its mobile devices - subscribe today.

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According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, of 1,134 occupational fraud cases investigated from January 2004 to January 2006, the median loss was $159,000. The median loss in frauds committed by men was double that incurred in frauds by women in the cases studied by fraud investigators. Fewer than 8 percent of these embezzlers of either gender had prior criminal convictions. However, embezzlement by women skyrocketed 80 percent between 1993 and 2002, even slightly exceeding the number of those crimes committed by men in 2002, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. Experts say that organizations that enable one employee to become indispensable by being the only one who, for example, knows how to prepare financial reports, are among those at risk.

FireEye is a California-based company that offers their 4200 network appliance that they say offers a new approach to detect and prevent malware. FireEye is using virtualization to combat polymorphing botnet worms. The 4200 uses the FireEye Attack Confirmation Technology (FACT) engine which is a network-based technology that creates an infinite supply of virtual victim machines to scan real-time network traffic flows for stealthy, targeted malware. The firm says that suspicious network traffic is mirrored into the FACT engine, where they are confirmed within virtual victim machine analysis. On attack confirmation, automated security actions are taken to protect other network resources.

Last year’s headlines about natural disasters and data breaches have put disaster recovery and security at the top of IT agendas. We will cover some of the top security trends for 2007 in the February issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.

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SECURITY: 

Finding a Balance between Security and Convenience

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

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

Comodo - http://www.comodogroup.com   Read Andrew J. Pynes' comments:     http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Comodo.pdf

Corillian - http://www.corillian.com   Read Greg Hughes' comments:    http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Corillian.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

GalaxyPlus - http://www.galaxyplus.com   Read Vince Francone's comments:     http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/GalaxyPlus.pdf

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

Intrusion - http://www.intrusion.com   Read Jay Barbour's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Intrusion.pdf

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

Network Armor - http://www.networkarmor.com   Read Stephen Goldsby's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/NetworkArmor.pdf

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

RSA Security - http://www.rsasecurity.com   Read Marc Gaffan's comments:     http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/RSA.pdf

SecureWorks - http://www.secureworks.com   Read Jon Ramsey's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/SecureWorks.pdf

Symitar - http://www.symitar.com   Read Larry Widel's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Symitar.pdf

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

WhiteHat Security - http://www.whitehatsec.com   Read Jeremiah Grossman's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/WhiteHat.pdf

WinMagic - http://www.winmagic.com   Read Joseph Belsanti's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/WinMagic.pdf

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According to Boston-based consultancy TowerGroup’s research, credit union Marketing Departments have their work cut out for them in 2007. Guillermo Kopp, vice president of TowerGroup Cross-Industry research noted that "traditional markets are saturated with product and service options. The maturation of established customer segments is limiting traditional market opportunity. Both customer satisfaction and loyalty are being eroded by competition from traditional and nontraditional sources and industries." The firm believes that fundamental innovation — based on real-time transactions, interconnected services, advanced customer analytics and business intelligence — will be critical for credit unions in 2007 and beyond. 

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Research firm Celent has released a new report entitled "Up Close and Personal with Online Lending." In it, they contend that online lending has tremendous upside potential across all loan types; however, credit unions will need to execute exceedingly well to obtain market share. They say that competing in this market requires fully automating the lending process while ensuring tight integration between online and offline member service channels. Lenders who cannot provide a streamlined and integrated user experience will fare poorly with their online initiatives. Plus, online borrowers are increasingly tech-savvy (particularly repeat borrowers) and value the Internet for the time and money it can save them. “Customers expect to see additional benefits from choosing the online channel, such as the reduction or elimination of paper documents, the ability to track the status of their loan application in a comprehensive manner, faster processing and approval times resulting from streamlined back office operations, and ultimately lower prices,” says Madhavi Mantha, co-author and senior analyst.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, through its line of PCi solutions, announced the availability of a web-based dashboard solution specifically designed to help lenders easily identify and address their unique potential compliance issues throughout the loan cycle. The PCi lending compliance dashboard gives credit unions the ability to review key lending compliance performance indicators in a Web browser. The PCi lending compliance dashboard solution automatically updates the analytic views with new data from the data sources. By drilling down the performance indicators, users can easily identify non-complying loans and isolate the root causes. 

The Aite Group has published a new report entitled "Converging Wire Transfer and Automated Clearing House (ACH) to Revolutionize U.S. Electronic Wholesale Payments" that concludes the US payments industry could save $7 billion annually if the two systems were converged into a single electronic system. According to Aite, "converging the wire transfer and ACH systems will provide optimum payments capabilities and services, significant cost savings, and revenue-generating opportunities."

Safeguard Internet Banking against Authentication Attacks and Phishing

Today's consumers are demanding financial institutions, and for that matter any organization of any size that provides a logon page to personal and business information, deliver unquestionable security whilst maintaining an ease of use balance.

myBiometrix efficiently meets and exceeds these criteria and that of FFIEC and NCUA guidelines through our proprietary interface that addresses the needs of both Consumer and Provider in securing transacting online:

   • Authenticating the consumer (verifying who is accessing information by who they are not what they have)
   • Verifying the providers site (ensuring a Phishing episode is not being perpetrated).
   • Confirming the source of the transaction (originating PC)
In other words, all aspects of the transaction are secured.

myBiometrix leverages an array of foreground and background technology presented through an intuitive user interface that provides multi-factor “personal trait” authentication.

   • irrefutably authenticates “personally” to a website using traits including
   • prevent others from falsely using the owners credentials to log on
   • eliminating the growing incidence of Phishing and Pharming attacks
   • eliminating Key Logger exposure as the keyboard is not used
   • eliminating the need to remember or write down pass-phrases

myBiometrix authenticates through a range of methods including:

   • Finger recognition
   • Voice recognition
   • Face recognition
   • Biometric Smart Card
   • Geometrical code
   • Others…

myBiometrix is a scaleable solution that can be hosted by us as a Managed Service or run In-House. Delivering irrefutable authentication and security and monitoring mechanisms, whilst maintaining a practical usability balance, myBiometrix conveys a holistic approach that is a world leader in irrefutable Authentication and Verification.

Collaboration and Reseller enquiries are welcomed for our range of proprietary Biometric solutions.

LEARN MORE ABOUT myBiometrix:

 www.myBiometrix.com

OR CONTACT US DIRECTLY AT:

busdev@myBiometrix.com

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A Canadian company has announced a new server-less VoIP phone system aimed at offices with 30 or fewer workers. This business phone system consists of IP phones with dual Ethernet and RJ-11 telephone connections, which allow the devices to connect internally over a LAN (local area network) and place/receive calls over a plain old telephone system (POTS) line. Extension numbers and phone names can be set up within five minutes, the company says. Learn more about how this system works in the February issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.

Satellite offers options that you just can't get with other Internet solutions – the most important being nearly ubiquitous service – a clear view of the sky being just about the only requirement for connectivity. Direc–Way and Starband are the two major satellite providers, but at this time, only Direc–Way Hughes.net offers "mobile" services to credit unions looking to have a mobile branch. There are two primary types of satellite offerings – permanent mount and portable tripod. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. The direct or permanent mount, allows easy, remote raising and tuning of the dish from inside your branch, but if your location doesn't have a clear view of the satellite, you won't have any Internet access. The tripod mount allows you to move the tripod out from under trees or other obstacles so that you can get the best signal, but you will have to manually setup and "tune" the signal at each location where you park. The hardware consists of the dish antenna and a transmitter/receiver. Tripod arrangements cost in the neighborhood of $1,500 for the initial purchase, whereas the permanent mount systems can cost anywhere from $3,000–$6,000 – and up, depending upon what options you choose. 

Tarzana, CA-based InfoStreet announced that automatic e-mail archiving services will now be offered as an extension to their Web-based subscription software. The Automatic Archiving service is non-intrusive to existing e-mail systems and supports most e-mail configurations (SMTP, POP, IMAP). All incoming e-mail is archived, can be restored quickly, and is fully scanned for viruses before archiving to ensure the integrity of the data. End users and employees can restore their own lost e-mail as needed, but they cannot delete the archives, either intentionally or accidentally. 

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By some estimates, more than 67 percent of call centers use an IVR (interactive voice response) system, either touchtone, voice or both. Credit unions looking to upgrade their IVR may want to take a look at a white paper from Genesys entitled "Moving from IVR to Voice Self-Service: Seven Key Strategies". These seven strategies include:

- Integrate self-service with agent-assisted service; 
- Reuse the business logic of existing Web applications; 
- Apply the level of call automation that best serves customers; 
- Leverage experts in deploying open voice and speech standards; 
- Set up clear migration paths to VoIP systems; 
- Keep “multi-tenancy” self-service as an option; 
- Track and measure every customer interaction through its entire lifecycle. 

Auburn Hills, MI-based Digital Dialogue, which answers over 150,000 credit union member calls per month, announced that they received nearly 5,500 inquiries on five recent holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. Demand was highest on New Year's Eve, when 1,640 member calls were logged, but the unanticipated federal holiday on January 2 also proved busy, with a more-than-usual number of inquiries about the credit union's operating hours as well as calls to conduct business by phone.

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Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2007:

Feb. 27-28, Miami Beach - Winter Biometric Summit

June 7-8, Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference

October 10-13, Albuquerque - Firefighters' National Credit Union Summit

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