September 18, 2009
Update covering September 11 - 17, 2009
Welcome to Tech Talk! In this week's edition, editors Andy Zavoina and John Burnett write about card encryption, a new chat scam, innovation, and much more.
Our selections from this week's tech news:
- A call for card encryption
- Time for a chat
- Rating mobile banking efforts
- Driving innovation at Wells
- Is your website safe?
- Taking advantage of adversity
- Considering the mule
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- Recovering from laptop theft
- This upgrade could take a while
- Fast booting drives
- Another big patch from Apple
- Why XP wasn't patched
- How NOT to go green
- and on the lighter side...
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Get the details below.
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Join
John Burnett
in a 2-hour
LIVE Webinar
Wednesday,
October 7th
Blocking Internet Gambling -- Are You Ready?
You have until December 1 to be ready for compliance with Regulation GG -- implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). If you've been hoping that Congress would pull the plug on the law or delay its enforcement, it's time for a reality check, and for you to kick your compliance planning into high gear. You need to know what the new rules will demand of you, which transactions you need to worry about, and which you can ignore. Which customers do you need to focus on? What policies and procedures will you need to write and enforce? Get all that and more in this important two-hour webinar that analyzes this controversial compliance requirement.
Can't attend?
Order the CD ROM of the program now.
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Payment Card Industry Data Security Policy Template
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On the lighter side ...
Can you have fun at the ATM? Jimmy Kimmel can. YouTube shows you how.
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Card encryption needed, says Heartland
Robert Carr, Chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, said that there is a gap in credit card security that needs plugging. Testifying before a U.S. Senate committee, Carr said that card numbers are not encrypted in communications linking retailers, payment processors and card issuers. Encryption is not required under the payment card industry guidelines. You can read more on this story in CIO. There is more information on end-to-end encryption in a TechWorld article.
Speaking of good reasons to encrypt data, Albert Gonzalez has pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court to 20 charges brought surrounding his data thefts at Barnes & Noble, TJX, OfficeMax, BJ's Wholesale Club and more. The Boston charges covered thefts of over 40 million credit and debit card numbers. Gonzalez was indicted in New Jersey last month for stealing 130 million more. Get the details at ITWorld.
Faked online chat help
So your customer says they've never given up their banking logon credentials and they've no idea how their account was hacked, but they have had problems ever since they used your new live-chat support service. "What new live-chat support service?" you ask. Read about this new attack vector before your bank and its customers are victimized. Computerworld has the story.
What's your mobile banking grade?
ABI Research, of Tampa Bay, FL recently completed a study of mobile banking at 29 institutions. Specifically, the firm reviews consumers and their use of technology. Mark Beccue of ABI graded banks on how they service their mobile customers. See which banks received an "A" and which banks failed at Tampa Bay Online.
Wells Fargo's drive for innovation
Wells Fargo is ranked number four in the Information Week 500 list of innovative companies. The bank's envelope-free ATM deposit process, first introduced in 2002, took time and patience before it was accepted. At first, optical character recognition wasn't quite capable and machines jammed too often. You can read more on that effort and what drives Wells Fargo's technology innovations at InformationWeek.
How good websites go bad
Sophos, a data protection company, issued findings that should alarm many web surfers. It is often thought that so long as you stay away from Internet porn, games and stock tips, you can stay on reputable sites and practice safe surfing. Maybe not. In the first half of 2009, Sophos found 23,500 new infected web pages. That is four times worse than 2008 and another infected page is added every 3.6 seconds. Could your bank's website be next? Read about seven things that can make even legitimate sites dangerous in this TechWorld story.
Malware threats may appear where you'd least expect them. Read how The New York Times was attacked and malicious JavaScript may have caused ads to go bad in SCMagazine.
Making adversity work for you
Two major influences on your bank's IT security program are the economy and events. The bad economy can cause cutbacks that restrict or even remove security measures you have put in place. One bad event, however, may give you the leverage you need to restore or expand those procedures. Read about one example in Computerworld.
Money mules make the world go round
A Maine heating and hardware company is the most recent target of a wave of cyber thefts from the accounts of small businesses to be highlighted in a series of articles by The Washington Post blogger Brian Krebs. Once keystroke logging software is installed and bank logon credentials are obtained, money mules play a vital role in schemes to move stolen funds quickly out of the country. The small business that has to deal with the aftermath of a data breach may also have lost its operating capital. Get this story at Security Fix.
Laptop recovery
David Krop went into a short meeting after parking his car with two laptops in it. Of course the laptops were stolen in a "smash and grab" that left the car's windows shattered. Thanks to a trial software program Krop had installed, he could see what the thief was doing and writing. He gathered all the information the police needed to track down his laptops, and to identify the thief. You can get more on this story at NetworkWorld.
Windows 7 upgrade may demand patience
If you have decided that you'll convert machines to Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system, you may be in line for some overtime. While a clean install can take between 30 minutes and an hour, some upgrades can take more than 20 hours to complete. Chris Hernandez, of the Windows deployment team, said in a blog that they tested three machine configurations with three simulated users. Read more about the upgrade tests in The Business Insider.
Faster boots from solid state drives
Have you started your PC in the morning and gone to get your coffee because you knew you had the time? HP is offering a new computer that will kick start Windows 7 and other applications. It has a solid-state drive (SSD) that will accelerate the process and get you working faster. Is your time worth the added hardware cost? Check it out in Computerworld.
Keep those Apples worm-free
Apple released a patch for its Mac OS X users. In all, at least 33 serious security holes were fixed involving potential problems with Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in, Clam AV, MySQL and PHP. For those using Snow Leopard, a separate security patch was released for that operating system. ZDNet has more for the Mac users.
As a supplement to this story, Brian Krebs comments on Apple's security updates, and offers some advice for Mac users. Read more in his Security Fix blog.
No patch for XP
One patch released by Microsoft on September 8 repaired a TCP/IP bug in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Windows XP was intentionally left out and will remain unpatched. Why? Read the article in Computerworld to find out.
Rethinking a plan to go green
T-Mobile planned to do a mobile make-over by charging those customers receiving paper bills a monthly charge of $1.50. Their customers didn't like the idea and T-Mobile has backed down, at least for now. Why? Read the MyWay article and consider the implications if your bank wants to move away from paper statements and notices.
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