July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

8-CALL FOR REVIEWERS: Draft NRC report on "Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content."
by Herb Lin 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

CALL FOR REVIEWERS - PLEASE POST WIDELY The National Research Council seeks reviewers for a draft report on its project on "Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content." More information on this project, including a list of committee members, can be found at < http://www.itasnrc.org>. Purpose of review Every report of the National Research Council must be reviewed by a diverse group of experts other than its authors before it may be released outside the institution. This independent, rigorous review is a hallmark that distinguishes the NRC from many other organizations offering scientific and technical advice on issues of national importance. The purpose of such review is to assist the authors in making their report as accurate and effective as possible, and to enhance the clarity, cogency, and credibility of the final document. Responsibilities of reviewers Reviewers are asked to consider whether in their judgment the evidence and arguments presented are sound and the report is fully responsive to the study charge, not whether they concur with the findings. Reviewers provide written comments on any and all aspects of the draft report, and the authoring committee is expected to consider all review comments and to provide written responses to those comments, either modifying the report accordingly or explaining why the report was not modified. The committee's responses are themselves evaluated by the National Research Council for adequacy and completeness. Note that NRC reports have a history of changing significantly between draft and final versions as the result of reviewer comments. Qualifications of reviewers Reviewers of NRC reports are selected on the basis of personal expertise in a field or fields relevant to the subject matter of the report; a dedication to drawing conclusions based on the analysis of data and information; sufficiently seniority in their fields to warrant broad respect for their intellect, fairness, and stature. Names of reviewers are made public at the time of the report's final publication, but during the review process they are anonymous to the committee and staff. Confidentiality of report Because NRC reports change as the result of review, reviewers must be willing to keep the draft report absolutely confidential and otherwise abide by the NRC's guidelines for reviewing of reports. Procedure for submitting names Please forward nominations for reviewers (self-nominations acceptable) to itas(a)nas.edu. The "subject" line of the e-mail should say "reviewer nomination." Submitted nominations should include contact information, biographies (including relevant published works, public statements, and current or former positions of relevance), and indications of relevant expertise and the perspective on the subject that the nominee will bring. Note that while the NRC seeks nominations from a wide variety of sources, it reserves the exclusive right to determine reviewers of its reports. Deadline for Nominations While nominations may be submitted at any time, nominations without the information described above, or received after September 15, 2001, may not be fully considered. More information is available from the Web site of this project at < http://www.itasnrc.org> or from Herb Lin (Study Director), at 202-334-2605. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----

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FC: NRC asks for reviewers for forthcoming Internet porn report
by Declan McCullagh 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Background from Politech archives: "Net-sex NRC panel asks for testimony, will hold regional mtgs" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01852.html "Patricia Nell Warren's comments to NAS porn panel" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01615.html "National Academy of Sciences panel hears about porn & kids" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01571.html "Free speech advocates fret about NAS Net-porn commission" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01567.html ********

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[i2p] weekly status notes [dec 21]
by jrandom 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Ev'nin folks, time for our status update * Index 1) 0.4.2.4 & 0.4.2.5 2) 0.5 strategy 3) naming 4) eepsite roundup 5) ??? 1) 0.4.2.4 & 0.4.2.5 With last week's 0.4.2.4 release, we saw the deployment of some new load balancing algorithms to throttle tunnel participation based on actual bandwidth usage, along side peer profiling updates to select peers better through a wider sample of data. This has done pretty well at both choking tunnel participation when necessary and finding good peers when possible. Another major update in that release was a change to how we verify time synchronization - rather than just checking the time sync once during connection establishment, peers now periodically send messages to each other with their current time, and if the time received is too far skewed, the connection is dropped. This has helped kick a few routers who were skewing off the net until they recovered (which is good), and the vast majority of peers have been quite close to 'correct' (you can see the clock skew on the /oldconsole.jsp page) With that, the network has been performing pretty well, but we were still seeing the occational bulk disconnect. After some debugging we tracked down an unintentional and wholely unnecessary DNS lookup that occurred whenever a router sent a message to a peer who has a hostname specified. This not only wasted time, but it wasted time within the jobqueue - essentially injecting a whole lot of lag for no reason. With that lookup removed, the router handled much better under heavily congested situations, but we were still seeing those occational bulk disconnects. After digging around in the stats and logging, we came up with a plausible theory that explains why those disconnects have been occurring - blaming them almost entirely on those DNS lookups. To test that theory (and to deploy some other goodies), we pushed out the 0.4.2.5 release this afternoon. We'll see how it goes. * 2) 0.5 strategy As the roadmap [1] says, the next planned release is 0.5, including a revised tunnel pool and encryption/id technique. Avoiding a big explanation (see [2], [3], [4], and a tiny bit of [5]), we will do this in two stages - first revamp the tunnel pooling and push that out as an interim release, debugging what is necessary, then revamp the encryption/id stuff, pushing that out as 0.5. Oh, and of course, once the algorithms for the pooling and encryption updates are in pretty good shape, they'll be posted up here and on the website for review. Along the way though, there will probably be small bugfix releases unrelated to the 0.5 stuff, but I don't have any specifically planned. [1] http://www.i2p.net/roadmap [2] http://www.i2p.net/todo#tunnelId [3] http://www.i2p.net/todo#ordering [4] http://www.i2p.net/todo#tunnelLength [5] http://www.i2p.net/todo#batching * 3) naming Yikes, now that I think about it, I really don't want to talk about naming yet - just download Ragnarok's latest addressbook app (2.0.1) from http://ragnarok.i2p/, check out susi's web based manager at http://susi.i2p/susidns/manager, and dig through the stats at http://orion.i2p/ and http://susi.i2p/susisworld.html * 4) eepsite roundup There have been some notable developments on various eepsites worth mentioning: = http://frosk.i2p/ - I2PContent doc updates = http://orion.i2p/ - new form to submit your keys to = http://piespy.i2p/ - neat graphs of the irc channels = http://forum.fr.i2p/ - french language forum = http://pastebin.i2p/ - stop flooding the channels! Of course, there have also been updates to other sites as well, plus some other new sites - check orion.i2p and sort the list by 'last updated' to review (or just go to 'em all ;) 5) ??? I know there's lots more going on, so please, swing on by the meeting in a few minutes and we can chat 'bout stuff. =jr -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFByItjGnFL2th344YRAmmOAKD+HxEAK+dqseq8ZCO5pjvW4EKImQCgkfwX 1KM+uQo7D6BjHAA99DwVyS0= =/T/b -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ i2p mailing list i2p(a)i2p.net http://i2p.dnsalias.net/mailman/listinfo/i2p ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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"After Being Cut From Norway, The Pirate Bay Returns From North Korea" or is it just BGP Tricks
by Bacon Zombie 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

The Pirate Bay have released a press release that they are now hosted out of North Korea: "The Pirate Bay has been hunted in many countries around the world. ....This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world, and our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of America, a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high...... ...We believe that being offered our virtual asylum in Korea is a first step of this country's changing view of access to information......." http://falkvinge.net/2013/03/04/after-being-cut-from-norway-the-pirate-bay-… https://thepiratebay.se/blog/229 But there is a lot of debate on Reddit that they are not really in North Korea and just doing some BGP trickery: "Anyone can hijack an AS number and not cause any issues for the real user b In this case The Pirate Bay set up a Sat dish in Phenom Penh, Cambodia b Intelsat gives them a BGP session there. The peer net for BGP handoff is 175.45.177.217/30, .216 is Intelsats side and .217 is The Pirate Baybs. One can use ANY IP they wish for these handoffs, internal, their own, b hijackedb b In this case The Pirate Bay b hijackedb 2 IPs from the North Korean network which does not matter for them as this is only acessible from their side, not from the internet. TBP then injected AS131279 as peer in the upstream table b so it does not look like this: AS22351 b AS51040 But instead: AS22351 b AS131279 b AS51040 This is possible because either Intelsat does not filter BGP announcements (unlikely) or TBP wrote a fake LOA for this AS (likely). Now as we traceroute the TBP IP we see the /30 subnet used for the handoff in Phenom Penh, which is why TPB says it is in North Korea b The ICMP (ping) reply from the IP makes it seem legit but does actually come from and entirely different network (aka the real Star-KP network). (Theres some more but i spare you that as it is pretty technological b for example that AS131279 does not hand over AS51040 routes to AS4737)." http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/19nb00/after_being_cut_from_nor… Anybody have an input on this and able to confirm or deny the claims of BGP Hijacking? -- BaconZombie LOAD "*",8,1 ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [liberationtech] What I've learned from Cryptocat
by frank＠journalistsecurity.net 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hey guys, I appreciate the importance and depth of this discussion. But I also wish to underscore that most of the people who are at risk are not using any tools whether they be CrytoCat, PGP, GChat or others for the simple reason that they either cannot figure them out, or don't have time to figure them out, or both. And I am talking about people at risk in many different nations. No doubt the functional security of tools is an indispensable, essential concern. Ignoring any vulnerabilities is dangerous, indeed. But the usability of the same tools and making them accessible to non-technologists is just as big a concern, in my view. I know you guys think that many such users including Western journalists are simply lazy. But many, if not most of the available tools are simply not intuitive, or not as much as most technologists who already know how to use them seem to think. How many people on this list have spent time asking non-technologists and other users who have tried, but have since given up even trying to use tools like PGP? Or have examined how new users interact with such tools? I have a great deal of respect for this community. But to be honest it seems to me that neither the technologists nor the donors have spent much time asking such questions. If a novice user make a mistake in PGP, for example, it's over. Options are not intuitive if you don't already know them. And if you hit the wrong button, you can end up at a deadend with no guidance how to get back on track. Trust me. I know. And I am not trashing PGP. I know well and fully appreciate it's value and I have used it and continue to use it hostile environments. And I also know that users and only users can make crucial choices during use for their own security. I get that, too. But most digital security tools still do not do a good job of laying out, let alone explaining the options. And I say that with respect for the value of the tools and options themselves. Cryptocat is one of the most user-friendly tools out there, and I think Nadim deserves credit for the effort. Of course, the vulnerabilities must be fixed before anyone should use it in a hostile environment. Although the level of vulnerability might also depend on the nature of the threat in any particular environment. But I also think we need to spend as much time making tools accessible as we do making them secure if we are going to reach the people who really need them. And right now few if any of these tools are having the reach that we all agree is needed. And that is an issue largely of usability. I think with more constructive collaboration we would achieve both. We need to. Thanks. Best, Frank Frank Smyth Executive Director Global Journalist Security [1]frank(a)journalistsecurity.net Tel. + 1 202 244 0717 Cell + 1 202 352 1736 Twitter: @JournoSecurity Website: [2]www.journalistsecurity.net [3]PGP Public Key Please consider our Earth before printing this email. Confidentiality Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this message and any copies. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [liberationtech] What I've learned from Cryptocat From: Moxie Marlinspike <[4]moxie(a)thoughtcrime.org> Date: Mon, August 06, 2012 10:29 pm To: [5]liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu On 08/06/2012 06:59 PM, Eleanor Saitta wrote: > Except that with your harm mitigation, you push many potential users > back to plaintext, where they are guaranteed to be owned. What > percentage of potential cryptocat users would the plugin version have to > stop from using the tool for you to accept that there was a place for > the non-plugin version? Let's stop using the word "plaintext," because my understanding is that none of the chat services we're speaking of transmit data in the clear. As I see it, there are currently three possible vectors for attack with "existing" web-based chat services: 1) SSL interception. 2) Server compromise. 3) Server operator. The technology in CryptoCat v1 does not address any of these three vectors, and all of them remain possible. My position is that it's actually more susceptible to attack via #1 and #2 than existing web-based chat solutions. I believe your position is that it improves on vector #3 by virtue of being not-Facebook. (I'm curious how you measure #3 in comparison to GChat.) If we postulate that CryptoCat does improve vector #3 by virtue of being not-Facebook, it isn't a result of the technology, but simply that we've agreed Nadim has a better monitoring/interception track record than Facebook. If that's something you think is valuable, it actually seems like it'd potentially be better served by having someone like the EFF or Riseup host a web-based and SSL-protected chat service, without brining any additional cryptography confusion into the mix. A trust project, not a cryptography project. Unfortunately for me, I'd rather depend on cryptography than people. But I believe that CryptoCat is actually well positioned to drive changes in the ecosystem that will allow them to really improve on those three vectors in time. I think it's difficult to experiment in public with security tools, however, and that it's a sage decision to make a secure solution available (CryptoCat v2) and work on reducing friction while maintaining security from there. - moxie -- [6]http://www.thoughtcrime.org _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list [7]liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: [8]https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: [9]https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on [10]http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech References 1. mailto:frank@journalistsecurity.net 2. http://www.journalistsecurity.net/ 3. http://www.journalistsecurity.net/franks-pgp-public-key 4. mailto:moxie@thoughtcrime.org 5. mailto:liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu 6. http://www.thoughtcrime.org/ 7. mailto:liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu 8. https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech 9. https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech 10. http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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None
by Jim Salters 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

*** September Project Update *** After a busy summer season of meetings and project development, a number of FSTC projects are poised to launch, as well as a strong pipeline in development. Our Standing Committees (SCOMs), especially those in Business Continuity, Security, and Check Imaging and Truncation, continue to broaden their participation, and build upon a foundation of dialog and action that leads to FSTC projects. In the past few weeks, we issued two new calls for participation: e-Authentication Proof-of-Concept, and Business Continuity Compliance and Status Reporting. See http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm . In addition, we have recently completed projects in Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase I, Technology Recovery Best Practices, and Survivability of Check Security Features. Details on these recent projects can be found at: http://fstc.org/projects/past.cfm . FSTC provides an action-oriented, collaborative forum for our members to address shared business opportunities and challenges through technology projects and knowledge-sharing. We view our projects as our core activity, and one of the key benefits of FSTC membership is eligibility to participate in these projects. In our efforts to keep our members and friends up-to-date on the latest developments in these active and developing initiatives, we provide our colleagues this periodic project update As always, please contact me or Zach Tumin, FSTC Executive Director, for more information. Or visit our website at http://fstc.org. Active Projects: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I Projects in Formation: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8) 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8) Projects in Development: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase II 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) ______________ ACTIVE PROJECTS: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I (launched July 2004, expected to complete in December) http://fstc.org/projects/counter-phishing-phase-1/ FSTC has launched a phased initiative to address the problem of phishing and related threats in financial services, as it affects the relationship between customer and firm. In collaboration with other industry groups, FSTC will focus on defining the unique technical and operating requirements of financial institutions (FIs) for counter-phishing measures; investigating counter-phishing technical solutions, proving and piloting solution sets enabled by technology to determine their fit against FI criteria and requirements; and clarifying the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of these technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives. The benefits to participants are: industry-vetted due diligence and scaling of the current problem and its future evolution; insight into peer institution strategies and assessments; and definition of an industry response that may be best undertaken with collaboration between key industry segments. 12 financial institutions and over 15 technology companies are participating in the 5-month first phase. This project originates from the Security SCOM: co-chaired by Mike McCormick of Wells Fargo, and Mike Versace of NEC. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Gene Neyer for more information (gene.neyer(a)fstc.org) (http://fstc.org/advisory/security.cfm) ______________ PROJECTS IN FORMATION: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#eauth This 5-month project will assess the viability of the potential business opportunity that exists for financial institutions to leverage their online customer relationships and provide an authentication service to government agencies, and to integrate these services into financial institutions' online applications. FSTC, jointly with the GSA's E-Authentication Initiative Project Management Office (EAI PMO), propose to launch a three-track project to ascertain the business model, legal framework, and technical viability of using institutions' identity credentials to permit consumers and businesses to access secure online government applications. The GSA is funding the business track of the initiative. There is no cost to financial institutions, and a $5,000 fee for associate and advisory members. In addition, a resource commitment is required for all participants, as outlined in the prospectus. Participation commitments are requested by Sept 24th, and the target kickoff is the week of October 4th. ______________ 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#compliance The FSTC Business Continuity Standing Committee proposes an initiative to assist the financial industry in coming to a common understanding on the meaning of continuity regulation, prioritization of compliance related activities, and creating efficiencies in documenting regulatory compliance status. To establish a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, a list of continuity related guidance will be pulled together along with the name of the agency responsible. Each regulation will be reviewed and a clearly worded summary of the continuity requirements will be developed. Where possible the regulatory agencies will be contacted for clarification on specific points. Common themes and requirements will be documented and prioritized. >From the continuity regulation summary, a questionnaire will be developed which will allow a FI to provide or collect continuity compliance status. The project will focus on providing straight forward interpretations of what is needed for an FI to comply with current regulations. This project is sponsored by the Business Continuity SCOM, co-chaired by Tom Hirsch of US Bank, and Damian Walch of IBM. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Charles Wallen for more information (charles.wallen(a)fstc.org) ______________ PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance: Phase II (proposal being finalized) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#iqa2 In Phase I, more than 20 companies, representing 2/3 of US check volume, most major vendors, and key industry associations, undertook a 90-day effort to assess the impact of poor quality check images, and defined 16 technical metrics and 4 usability levels that can be used to measure image quality and usability in a standard and interoperable way. The findings of the Phase I project team justified further development, to test these metrics in a real-world scenario, on millions of images, to determine the quantitative thresholds for the 16 metrics that will define a minimum baseline "standard" for acceptable quality images for the industry. The business objectives are to maximize efficiencies, cost savings, and ensure strong adoption of image exchange. The project will undertake a robust, "real-world" analysis and test to provide actionable specifications and direction to the industry to allow financial institutions, technology vendors, standards organizations, and other key partners to collectively implement baseline image quality and usability through industry collaboration under the FSTC umbrella. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) co-chaired by Katrina Brown, Wells Fargo; Glen Ulrich, US Bank; and Ian Goodall, NCR. A call for participation is expected during the month of September. ______________ 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II As a follow-on to the recently completed Phase I (http://fstc.org/projects/csf/) this initiative will seek to develop interoperability specifications for automated security feature verification engines. As a growing number of vendors offer security features targeted at surviving the imaging process, institutions face a growing number of proprietary verification engines that must be installed and configured to validate these features during processing. The objective of this initiative is to make is less expensive and easier to manage the implementation of these security feature verification products. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) More information on this project will be published in the next month or so. ______________ 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services (on hold) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#tsi As a potential Phase II following the previous Web Services for Corporate Cash Management effort, a core group of FSTC institutions and technology companies have defined key business objectives and deliverables for a discovery phase, and subsequent pilot-level project utilizing Web Services in the Treasury Services / Cash Management area. The project, as it currently stands, will seek to further develop the Phase I set of web services and associated definitions to create new and open-standards-based connectivity options between banks, and between banks and their customers. The business goals are to enable standards-based "plug-and-play" integration capabilities between institutions and customer platforms, whether ERP, Treasury Work Station (TWS), or desktop. A core group of financial institutions and technology companies has committed to launching this initiative in the second half of 2004. This project is considered on-hold until later this year. ______________ 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems The transformation of systems from higher cost or proprietary delivery to open systems is one of the most hotly debated and discussed topics in financial services IT. While there is great promise in the flexibility and efficiencies gained, there is also risk and cost. An FSTC project will soon form up to determine answers to such key questions as, "Are those transformations viable?" and "What are the costs and processes by which a successful transformation program will be run?" The vision of this initiative is to bring together financial institutions to investigate the needs, processes, best practices, technology issues, risk factors, organizational issues and lessons-learned for transformation projects which move core business processes from legacy IT assets to open systems. We will provide additional details shortly. If you are interested in joining an interest group around this topic, please contact us. ______________ 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) In its early stages, FSTC and its members are in dialog with numerous government and industry organizations to explore interest in an initiative to identify the minimum essential elements of our financial system, and to develop a plan and process to ensure that it remains operational in the event of a disruption to normal operations. A workshop is currently being planned for this fall for multiple public and private sector organizations to develop this concept further. If you are interested in joining this dialog, please contact Zach Tumin at zachary.tumin(a)fstc.org . ______________ ## ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://ls.fstc.org/subscriber> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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None
by Jim Salters 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

*** September Project Update *** After a busy summer season of meetings and project development, a number of FSTC projects are poised to launch, as well as a strong pipeline in development. Our Standing Committees (SCOMs), especially those in Business Continuity, Security, and Check Imaging and Truncation, continue to broaden their participation, and build upon a foundation of dialog and action that leads to FSTC projects. In the past few weeks, we issued two new calls for participation: e-Authentication Proof-of-Concept, and Business Continuity Compliance and Status Reporting. See http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm . In addition, we have recently completed projects in Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase I, Technology Recovery Best Practices, and Survivability of Check Security Features. Details on these recent projects can be found at: http://fstc.org/projects/past.cfm . FSTC provides an action-oriented, collaborative forum for our members to address shared business opportunities and challenges through technology projects and knowledge-sharing. We view our projects as our core activity, and one of the key benefits of FSTC membership is eligibility to participate in these projects. In our efforts to keep our members and friends up-to-date on the latest developments in these active and developing initiatives, we provide our colleagues this periodic project update As always, please contact me or Zach Tumin, FSTC Executive Director, for more information. Or visit our website at http://fstc.org. Active Projects: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I Projects in Formation: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8) 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8) Projects in Development: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase II 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) ______________ ACTIVE PROJECTS: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I (launched July 2004, expected to complete in December) http://fstc.org/projects/counter-phishing-phase-1/ FSTC has launched a phased initiative to address the problem of phishing and related threats in financial services, as it affects the relationship between customer and firm. In collaboration with other industry groups, FSTC will focus on defining the unique technical and operating requirements of financial institutions (FIs) for counter-phishing measures; investigating counter-phishing technical solutions, proving and piloting solution sets enabled by technology to determine their fit against FI criteria and requirements; and clarifying the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of these technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives. The benefits to participants are: industry-vetted due diligence and scaling of the current problem and its future evolution; insight into peer institution strategies and assessments; and definition of an industry response that may be best undertaken with collaboration between key industry segments. 12 financial institutions and over 15 technology companies are participating in the 5-month first phase. This project originates from the Security SCOM: co-chaired by Mike McCormick of Wells Fargo, and Mike Versace of NEC. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Gene Neyer for more information (gene.neyer(a)fstc.org) (http://fstc.org/advisory/security.cfm) ______________ PROJECTS IN FORMATION: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#eauth This 5-month project will assess the viability of the potential business opportunity that exists for financial institutions to leverage their online customer relationships and provide an authentication service to government agencies, and to integrate these services into financial institutions' online applications. FSTC, jointly with the GSA's E-Authentication Initiative Project Management Office (EAI PMO), propose to launch a three-track project to ascertain the business model, legal framework, and technical viability of using institutions' identity credentials to permit consumers and businesses to access secure online government applications. The GSA is funding the business track of the initiative. There is no cost to financial institutions, and a $5,000 fee for associate and advisory members. In addition, a resource commitment is required for all participants, as outlined in the prospectus. Participation commitments are requested by Sept 24th, and the target kickoff is the week of October 4th. ______________ 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#compliance The FSTC Business Continuity Standing Committee proposes an initiative to assist the financial industry in coming to a common understanding on the meaning of continuity regulation, prioritization of compliance related activities, and creating efficiencies in documenting regulatory compliance status. To establish a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, a list of continuity related guidance will be pulled together along with the name of the agency responsible. Each regulation will be reviewed and a clearly worded summary of the continuity requirements will be developed. Where possible the regulatory agencies will be contacted for clarification on specific points. Common themes and requirements will be documented and prioritized. >From the continuity regulation summary, a questionnaire will be developed which will allow a FI to provide or collect continuity compliance status. The project will focus on providing straight forward interpretations of what is needed for an FI to comply with current regulations. This project is sponsored by the Business Continuity SCOM, co-chaired by Tom Hirsch of US Bank, and Damian Walch of IBM. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Charles Wallen for more information (charles.wallen(a)fstc.org) ______________ PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance: Phase II (proposal being finalized) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#iqa2 In Phase I, more than 20 companies, representing 2/3 of US check volume, most major vendors, and key industry associations, undertook a 90-day effort to assess the impact of poor quality check images, and defined 16 technical metrics and 4 usability levels that can be used to measure image quality and usability in a standard and interoperable way. The findings of the Phase I project team justified further development, to test these metrics in a real-world scenario, on millions of images, to determine the quantitative thresholds for the 16 metrics that will define a minimum baseline "standard" for acceptable quality images for the industry. The business objectives are to maximize efficiencies, cost savings, and ensure strong adoption of image exchange. The project will undertake a robust, "real-world" analysis and test to provide actionable specifications and direction to the industry to allow financial institutions, technology vendors, standards organizations, and other key partners to collectively implement baseline image quality and usability through industry collaboration under the FSTC umbrella. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) co-chaired by Katrina Brown, Wells Fargo; Glen Ulrich, US Bank; and Ian Goodall, NCR. A call for participation is expected during the month of September. ______________ 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II As a follow-on to the recently completed Phase I (http://fstc.org/projects/csf/) this initiative will seek to develop interoperability specifications for automated security feature verification engines. As a growing number of vendors offer security features targeted at surviving the imaging process, institutions face a growing number of proprietary verification engines that must be installed and configured to validate these features during processing. The objective of this initiative is to make is less expensive and easier to manage the implementation of these security feature verification products. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) More information on this project will be published in the next month or so. ______________ 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services (on hold) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#tsi As a potential Phase II following the previous Web Services for Corporate Cash Management effort, a core group of FSTC institutions and technology companies have defined key business objectives and deliverables for a discovery phase, and subsequent pilot-level project utilizing Web Services in the Treasury Services / Cash Management area. The project, as it currently stands, will seek to further develop the Phase I set of web services and associated definitions to create new and open-standards-based connectivity options between banks, and between banks and their customers. The business goals are to enable standards-based "plug-and-play" integration capabilities between institutions and customer platforms, whether ERP, Treasury Work Station (TWS), or desktop. A core group of financial institutions and technology companies has committed to launching this initiative in the second half of 2004. This project is considered on-hold until later this year. ______________ 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems The transformation of systems from higher cost or proprietary delivery to open systems is one of the most hotly debated and discussed topics in financial services IT. While there is great promise in the flexibility and efficiencies gained, there is also risk and cost. An FSTC project will soon form up to determine answers to such key questions as, "Are those transformations viable?" and "What are the costs and processes by which a successful transformation program will be run?" The vision of this initiative is to bring together financial institutions to investigate the needs, processes, best practices, technology issues, risk factors, organizational issues and lessons-learned for transformation projects which move core business processes from legacy IT assets to open systems. We will provide additional details shortly. If you are interested in joining an interest group around this topic, please contact us. ______________ 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) In its early stages, FSTC and its members are in dialog with numerous government and industry organizations to explore interest in an initiative to identify the minimum essential elements of our financial system, and to develop a plan and process to ensure that it remains operational in the event of a disruption to normal operations. A workshop is currently being planned for this fall for multiple public and private sector organizations to develop this concept further. If you are interested in joining this dialog, please contact Zach Tumin at zachary.tumin(a)fstc.org . ______________ ## ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://ls.fstc.org/subscriber> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

None
by Jim Salters 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

*** September Project Update *** After a busy summer season of meetings and project development, a number of FSTC projects are poised to launch, as well as a strong pipeline in development. Our Standing Committees (SCOMs), especially those in Business Continuity, Security, and Check Imaging and Truncation, continue to broaden their participation, and build upon a foundation of dialog and action that leads to FSTC projects. In the past few weeks, we issued two new calls for participation: e-Authentication Proof-of-Concept, and Business Continuity Compliance and Status Reporting. See http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm . In addition, we have recently completed projects in Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase I, Technology Recovery Best Practices, and Survivability of Check Security Features. Details on these recent projects can be found at: http://fstc.org/projects/past.cfm . FSTC provides an action-oriented, collaborative forum for our members to address shared business opportunities and challenges through technology projects and knowledge-sharing. We view our projects as our core activity, and one of the key benefits of FSTC membership is eligibility to participate in these projects. In our efforts to keep our members and friends up-to-date on the latest developments in these active and developing initiatives, we provide our colleagues this periodic project update As always, please contact me or Zach Tumin, FSTC Executive Director, for more information. Or visit our website at http://fstc.org. Active Projects: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I Projects in Formation: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8) 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8) Projects in Development: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase II 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) ______________ ACTIVE PROJECTS: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I (launched July 2004, expected to complete in December) http://fstc.org/projects/counter-phishing-phase-1/ FSTC has launched a phased initiative to address the problem of phishing and related threats in financial services, as it affects the relationship between customer and firm. In collaboration with other industry groups, FSTC will focus on defining the unique technical and operating requirements of financial institutions (FIs) for counter-phishing measures; investigating counter-phishing technical solutions, proving and piloting solution sets enabled by technology to determine their fit against FI criteria and requirements; and clarifying the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of these technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives. The benefits to participants are: industry-vetted due diligence and scaling of the current problem and its future evolution; insight into peer institution strategies and assessments; and definition of an industry response that may be best undertaken with collaboration between key industry segments. 12 financial institutions and over 15 technology companies are participating in the 5-month first phase. This project originates from the Security SCOM: co-chaired by Mike McCormick of Wells Fargo, and Mike Versace of NEC. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Gene Neyer for more information (gene.neyer(a)fstc.org) (http://fstc.org/advisory/security.cfm) ______________ PROJECTS IN FORMATION: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#eauth This 5-month project will assess the viability of the potential business opportunity that exists for financial institutions to leverage their online customer relationships and provide an authentication service to government agencies, and to integrate these services into financial institutions' online applications. FSTC, jointly with the GSA's E-Authentication Initiative Project Management Office (EAI PMO), propose to launch a three-track project to ascertain the business model, legal framework, and technical viability of using institutions' identity credentials to permit consumers and businesses to access secure online government applications. The GSA is funding the business track of the initiative. There is no cost to financial institutions, and a $5,000 fee for associate and advisory members. In addition, a resource commitment is required for all participants, as outlined in the prospectus. Participation commitments are requested by Sept 24th, and the target kickoff is the week of October 4th. ______________ 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#compliance The FSTC Business Continuity Standing Committee proposes an initiative to assist the financial industry in coming to a common understanding on the meaning of continuity regulation, prioritization of compliance related activities, and creating efficiencies in documenting regulatory compliance status. To establish a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, a list of continuity related guidance will be pulled together along with the name of the agency responsible. Each regulation will be reviewed and a clearly worded summary of the continuity requirements will be developed. Where possible the regulatory agencies will be contacted for clarification on specific points. Common themes and requirements will be documented and prioritized. >From the continuity regulation summary, a questionnaire will be developed which will allow a FI to provide or collect continuity compliance status. The project will focus on providing straight forward interpretations of what is needed for an FI to comply with current regulations. This project is sponsored by the Business Continuity SCOM, co-chaired by Tom Hirsch of US Bank, and Damian Walch of IBM. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Charles Wallen for more information (charles.wallen(a)fstc.org) ______________ PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance: Phase II (proposal being finalized) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#iqa2 In Phase I, more than 20 companies, representing 2/3 of US check volume, most major vendors, and key industry associations, undertook a 90-day effort to assess the impact of poor quality check images, and defined 16 technical metrics and 4 usability levels that can be used to measure image quality and usability in a standard and interoperable way. The findings of the Phase I project team justified further development, to test these metrics in a real-world scenario, on millions of images, to determine the quantitative thresholds for the 16 metrics that will define a minimum baseline "standard" for acceptable quality images for the industry. The business objectives are to maximize efficiencies, cost savings, and ensure strong adoption of image exchange. The project will undertake a robust, "real-world" analysis and test to provide actionable specifications and direction to the industry to allow financial institutions, technology vendors, standards organizations, and other key partners to collectively implement baseline image quality and usability through industry collaboration under the FSTC umbrella. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) co-chaired by Katrina Brown, Wells Fargo; Glen Ulrich, US Bank; and Ian Goodall, NCR. A call for participation is expected during the month of September. ______________ 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II As a follow-on to the recently completed Phase I (http://fstc.org/projects/csf/) this initiative will seek to develop interoperability specifications for automated security feature verification engines. As a growing number of vendors offer security features targeted at surviving the imaging process, institutions face a growing number of proprietary verification engines that must be installed and configured to validate these features during processing. The objective of this initiative is to make is less expensive and easier to manage the implementation of these security feature verification products. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) More information on this project will be published in the next month or so. ______________ 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services (on hold) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#tsi As a potential Phase II following the previous Web Services for Corporate Cash Management effort, a core group of FSTC institutions and technology companies have defined key business objectives and deliverables for a discovery phase, and subsequent pilot-level project utilizing Web Services in the Treasury Services / Cash Management area. The project, as it currently stands, will seek to further develop the Phase I set of web services and associated definitions to create new and open-standards-based connectivity options between banks, and between banks and their customers. The business goals are to enable standards-based "plug-and-play" integration capabilities between institutions and customer platforms, whether ERP, Treasury Work Station (TWS), or desktop. A core group of financial institutions and technology companies has committed to launching this initiative in the second half of 2004. This project is considered on-hold until later this year. ______________ 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems The transformation of systems from higher cost or proprietary delivery to open systems is one of the most hotly debated and discussed topics in financial services IT. While there is great promise in the flexibility and efficiencies gained, there is also risk and cost. An FSTC project will soon form up to determine answers to such key questions as, "Are those transformations viable?" and "What are the costs and processes by which a successful transformation program will be run?" The vision of this initiative is to bring together financial institutions to investigate the needs, processes, best practices, technology issues, risk factors, organizational issues and lessons-learned for transformation projects which move core business processes from legacy IT assets to open systems. We will provide additional details shortly. If you are interested in joining an interest group around this topic, please contact us. ______________ 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) In its early stages, FSTC and its members are in dialog with numerous government and industry organizations to explore interest in an initiative to identify the minimum essential elements of our financial system, and to develop a plan and process to ensure that it remains operational in the event of a disruption to normal operations. A workshop is currently being planned for this fall for multiple public and private sector organizations to develop this concept further. If you are interested in joining this dialog, please contact Zach Tumin at zachary.tumin(a)fstc.org . ______________ ## ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://ls.fstc.org/subscriber> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

None
by Jim Salters 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

*** September Project Update *** After a busy summer season of meetings and project development, a number of FSTC projects are poised to launch, as well as a strong pipeline in development. Our Standing Committees (SCOMs), especially those in Business Continuity, Security, and Check Imaging and Truncation, continue to broaden their participation, and build upon a foundation of dialog and action that leads to FSTC projects. In the past few weeks, we issued two new calls for participation: e-Authentication Proof-of-Concept, and Business Continuity Compliance and Status Reporting. See http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm . In addition, we have recently completed projects in Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase I, Technology Recovery Best Practices, and Survivability of Check Security Features. Details on these recent projects can be found at: http://fstc.org/projects/past.cfm . FSTC provides an action-oriented, collaborative forum for our members to address shared business opportunities and challenges through technology projects and knowledge-sharing. We view our projects as our core activity, and one of the key benefits of FSTC membership is eligibility to participate in these projects. In our efforts to keep our members and friends up-to-date on the latest developments in these active and developing initiatives, we provide our colleagues this periodic project update As always, please contact me or Zach Tumin, FSTC Executive Director, for more information. Or visit our website at http://fstc.org. Active Projects: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I Projects in Formation: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8) 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8) Projects in Development: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase II 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) ______________ ACTIVE PROJECTS: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I (launched July 2004, expected to complete in December) http://fstc.org/projects/counter-phishing-phase-1/ FSTC has launched a phased initiative to address the problem of phishing and related threats in financial services, as it affects the relationship between customer and firm. In collaboration with other industry groups, FSTC will focus on defining the unique technical and operating requirements of financial institutions (FIs) for counter-phishing measures; investigating counter-phishing technical solutions, proving and piloting solution sets enabled by technology to determine their fit against FI criteria and requirements; and clarifying the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of these technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives. The benefits to participants are: industry-vetted due diligence and scaling of the current problem and its future evolution; insight into peer institution strategies and assessments; and definition of an industry response that may be best undertaken with collaboration between key industry segments. 12 financial institutions and over 15 technology companies are participating in the 5-month first phase. This project originates from the Security SCOM: co-chaired by Mike McCormick of Wells Fargo, and Mike Versace of NEC. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Gene Neyer for more information (gene.neyer(a)fstc.org) (http://fstc.org/advisory/security.cfm) ______________ PROJECTS IN FORMATION: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#eauth This 5-month project will assess the viability of the potential business opportunity that exists for financial institutions to leverage their online customer relationships and provide an authentication service to government agencies, and to integrate these services into financial institutions' online applications. FSTC, jointly with the GSA's E-Authentication Initiative Project Management Office (EAI PMO), propose to launch a three-track project to ascertain the business model, legal framework, and technical viability of using institutions' identity credentials to permit consumers and businesses to access secure online government applications. The GSA is funding the business track of the initiative. There is no cost to financial institutions, and a $5,000 fee for associate and advisory members. In addition, a resource commitment is required for all participants, as outlined in the prospectus. Participation commitments are requested by Sept 24th, and the target kickoff is the week of October 4th. ______________ 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#compliance The FSTC Business Continuity Standing Committee proposes an initiative to assist the financial industry in coming to a common understanding on the meaning of continuity regulation, prioritization of compliance related activities, and creating efficiencies in documenting regulatory compliance status. To establish a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, a list of continuity related guidance will be pulled together along with the name of the agency responsible. Each regulation will be reviewed and a clearly worded summary of the continuity requirements will be developed. Where possible the regulatory agencies will be contacted for clarification on specific points. Common themes and requirements will be documented and prioritized. >From the continuity regulation summary, a questionnaire will be developed which will allow a FI to provide or collect continuity compliance status. The project will focus on providing straight forward interpretations of what is needed for an FI to comply with current regulations. This project is sponsored by the Business Continuity SCOM, co-chaired by Tom Hirsch of US Bank, and Damian Walch of IBM. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Charles Wallen for more information (charles.wallen(a)fstc.org) ______________ PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance: Phase II (proposal being finalized) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#iqa2 In Phase I, more than 20 companies, representing 2/3 of US check volume, most major vendors, and key industry associations, undertook a 90-day effort to assess the impact of poor quality check images, and defined 16 technical metrics and 4 usability levels that can be used to measure image quality and usability in a standard and interoperable way. The findings of the Phase I project team justified further development, to test these metrics in a real-world scenario, on millions of images, to determine the quantitative thresholds for the 16 metrics that will define a minimum baseline "standard" for acceptable quality images for the industry. The business objectives are to maximize efficiencies, cost savings, and ensure strong adoption of image exchange. The project will undertake a robust, "real-world" analysis and test to provide actionable specifications and direction to the industry to allow financial institutions, technology vendors, standards organizations, and other key partners to collectively implement baseline image quality and usability through industry collaboration under the FSTC umbrella. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) co-chaired by Katrina Brown, Wells Fargo; Glen Ulrich, US Bank; and Ian Goodall, NCR. A call for participation is expected during the month of September. ______________ 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II As a follow-on to the recently completed Phase I (http://fstc.org/projects/csf/) this initiative will seek to develop interoperability specifications for automated security feature verification engines. As a growing number of vendors offer security features targeted at surviving the imaging process, institutions face a growing number of proprietary verification engines that must be installed and configured to validate these features during processing. The objective of this initiative is to make is less expensive and easier to manage the implementation of these security feature verification products. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) More information on this project will be published in the next month or so. ______________ 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services (on hold) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#tsi As a potential Phase II following the previous Web Services for Corporate Cash Management effort, a core group of FSTC institutions and technology companies have defined key business objectives and deliverables for a discovery phase, and subsequent pilot-level project utilizing Web Services in the Treasury Services / Cash Management area. The project, as it currently stands, will seek to further develop the Phase I set of web services and associated definitions to create new and open-standards-based connectivity options between banks, and between banks and their customers. The business goals are to enable standards-based "plug-and-play" integration capabilities between institutions and customer platforms, whether ERP, Treasury Work Station (TWS), or desktop. A core group of financial institutions and technology companies has committed to launching this initiative in the second half of 2004. This project is considered on-hold until later this year. ______________ 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems The transformation of systems from higher cost or proprietary delivery to open systems is one of the most hotly debated and discussed topics in financial services IT. While there is great promise in the flexibility and efficiencies gained, there is also risk and cost. An FSTC project will soon form up to determine answers to such key questions as, "Are those transformations viable?" and "What are the costs and processes by which a successful transformation program will be run?" The vision of this initiative is to bring together financial institutions to investigate the needs, processes, best practices, technology issues, risk factors, organizational issues and lessons-learned for transformation projects which move core business processes from legacy IT assets to open systems. We will provide additional details shortly. If you are interested in joining an interest group around this topic, please contact us. ______________ 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) In its early stages, FSTC and its members are in dialog with numerous government and industry organizations to explore interest in an initiative to identify the minimum essential elements of our financial system, and to develop a plan and process to ensure that it remains operational in the event of a disruption to normal operations. A workshop is currently being planned for this fall for multiple public and private sector organizations to develop this concept further. If you are interested in joining this dialog, please contact Zach Tumin at zachary.tumin(a)fstc.org . ______________ ## ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://ls.fstc.org/subscriber> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

None
by Jim Salters 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

*** September Project Update *** After a busy summer season of meetings and project development, a number of FSTC projects are poised to launch, as well as a strong pipeline in development. Our Standing Committees (SCOMs), especially those in Business Continuity, Security, and Check Imaging and Truncation, continue to broaden their participation, and build upon a foundation of dialog and action that leads to FSTC projects. In the past few weeks, we issued two new calls for participation: e-Authentication Proof-of-Concept, and Business Continuity Compliance and Status Reporting. See http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm . In addition, we have recently completed projects in Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase I, Technology Recovery Best Practices, and Survivability of Check Security Features. Details on these recent projects can be found at: http://fstc.org/projects/past.cfm . FSTC provides an action-oriented, collaborative forum for our members to address shared business opportunities and challenges through technology projects and knowledge-sharing. We view our projects as our core activity, and one of the key benefits of FSTC membership is eligibility to participate in these projects. In our efforts to keep our members and friends up-to-date on the latest developments in these active and developing initiatives, we provide our colleagues this periodic project update As always, please contact me or Zach Tumin, FSTC Executive Director, for more information. Or visit our website at http://fstc.org. Active Projects: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I Projects in Formation: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8) 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8) Projects in Development: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance Phase II 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) ______________ ACTIVE PROJECTS: 1. Counter-Phishing Phase I (launched July 2004, expected to complete in December) http://fstc.org/projects/counter-phishing-phase-1/ FSTC has launched a phased initiative to address the problem of phishing and related threats in financial services, as it affects the relationship between customer and firm. In collaboration with other industry groups, FSTC will focus on defining the unique technical and operating requirements of financial institutions (FIs) for counter-phishing measures; investigating counter-phishing technical solutions, proving and piloting solution sets enabled by technology to determine their fit against FI criteria and requirements; and clarifying the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of these technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives. The benefits to participants are: industry-vetted due diligence and scaling of the current problem and its future evolution; insight into peer institution strategies and assessments; and definition of an industry response that may be best undertaken with collaboration between key industry segments. 12 financial institutions and over 15 technology companies are participating in the 5-month first phase. This project originates from the Security SCOM: co-chaired by Mike McCormick of Wells Fargo, and Mike Versace of NEC. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Gene Neyer for more information (gene.neyer(a)fstc.org) (http://fstc.org/advisory/security.cfm) ______________ PROJECTS IN FORMATION: 1. e-Authentication: Business and Technology Proof-of-Concept (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#eauth This 5-month project will assess the viability of the potential business opportunity that exists for financial institutions to leverage their online customer relationships and provide an authentication service to government agencies, and to integrate these services into financial institutions' online applications. FSTC, jointly with the GSA's E-Authentication Initiative Project Management Office (EAI PMO), propose to launch a three-track project to ascertain the business model, legal framework, and technical viability of using institutions' identity credentials to permit consumers and businesses to access secure online government applications. The GSA is funding the business track of the initiative. There is no cost to financial institutions, and a $5,000 fee for associate and advisory members. In addition, a resource commitment is required for all participants, as outlined in the prospectus. Participation commitments are requested by Sept 24th, and the target kickoff is the week of October 4th. ______________ 2. Business Continuity: Compliance and Status Reporting (call for participation issued 9/8/04) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#compliance The FSTC Business Continuity Standing Committee proposes an initiative to assist the financial industry in coming to a common understanding on the meaning of continuity regulation, prioritization of compliance related activities, and creating efficiencies in documenting regulatory compliance status. To establish a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, a list of continuity related guidance will be pulled together along with the name of the agency responsible. Each regulation will be reviewed and a clearly worded summary of the continuity requirements will be developed. Where possible the regulatory agencies will be contacted for clarification on specific points. Common themes and requirements will be documented and prioritized. >From the continuity regulation summary, a questionnaire will be developed which will allow a FI to provide or collect continuity compliance status. The project will focus on providing straight forward interpretations of what is needed for an FI to comply with current regulations. This project is sponsored by the Business Continuity SCOM, co-chaired by Tom Hirsch of US Bank, and Damian Walch of IBM. Please contact FSTC Managing Executive Charles Wallen for more information (charles.wallen(a)fstc.org) ______________ PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT: 1. Image Quality and Usability Assurance: Phase II (proposal being finalized) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#iqa2 In Phase I, more than 20 companies, representing 2/3 of US check volume, most major vendors, and key industry associations, undertook a 90-day effort to assess the impact of poor quality check images, and defined 16 technical metrics and 4 usability levels that can be used to measure image quality and usability in a standard and interoperable way. The findings of the Phase I project team justified further development, to test these metrics in a real-world scenario, on millions of images, to determine the quantitative thresholds for the 16 metrics that will define a minimum baseline "standard" for acceptable quality images for the industry. The business objectives are to maximize efficiencies, cost savings, and ensure strong adoption of image exchange. The project will undertake a robust, "real-world" analysis and test to provide actionable specifications and direction to the industry to allow financial institutions, technology vendors, standards organizations, and other key partners to collectively implement baseline image quality and usability through industry collaboration under the FSTC umbrella. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) co-chaired by Katrina Brown, Wells Fargo; Glen Ulrich, US Bank; and Ian Goodall, NCR. A call for participation is expected during the month of September. ______________ 2. Survivability of Check Security Features Phase II As a follow-on to the recently completed Phase I (http://fstc.org/projects/csf/) this initiative will seek to develop interoperability specifications for automated security feature verification engines. As a growing number of vendors offer security features targeted at surviving the imaging process, institutions face a growing number of proprietary verification engines that must be installed and configured to validate these features during processing. The objective of this initiative is to make is less expensive and easier to manage the implementation of these security feature verification products. This project originates from the Check Truncation SIG (http://fstc.org/advisory/check-truncation.cfm) More information on this project will be published in the next month or so. ______________ 3. Treasury Services Integration: Data Exchange and Customer Connectivity through Web Services (on hold) http://fstc.org/projects/new.cfm#tsi As a potential Phase II following the previous Web Services for Corporate Cash Management effort, a core group of FSTC institutions and technology companies have defined key business objectives and deliverables for a discovery phase, and subsequent pilot-level project utilizing Web Services in the Treasury Services / Cash Management area. The project, as it currently stands, will seek to further develop the Phase I set of web services and associated definitions to create new and open-standards-based connectivity options between banks, and between banks and their customers. The business goals are to enable standards-based "plug-and-play" integration capabilities between institutions and customer platforms, whether ERP, Treasury Work Station (TWS), or desktop. A core group of financial institutions and technology companies has committed to launching this initiative in the second half of 2004. This project is considered on-hold until later this year. ______________ 4. Transformation to Open Mission Critical Systems The transformation of systems from higher cost or proprietary delivery to open systems is one of the most hotly debated and discussed topics in financial services IT. While there is great promise in the flexibility and efficiencies gained, there is also risk and cost. An FSTC project will soon form up to determine answers to such key questions as, "Are those transformations viable?" and "What are the costs and processes by which a successful transformation program will be run?" The vision of this initiative is to bring together financial institutions to investigate the needs, processes, best practices, technology issues, risk factors, organizational issues and lessons-learned for transformation projects which move core business processes from legacy IT assets to open systems. We will provide additional details shortly. If you are interested in joining an interest group around this topic, please contact us. ______________ 5. Minimum Essential Finance (MEF) In its early stages, FSTC and its members are in dialog with numerous government and industry organizations to explore interest in an initiative to identify the minimum essential elements of our financial system, and to develop a plan and process to ensure that it remains operational in the event of a disruption to normal operations. A workshop is currently being planned for this fall for multiple public and private sector organizations to develop this concept further. If you are interested in joining this dialog, please contact Zach Tumin at zachary.tumin(a)fstc.org . ______________ ## ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://ls.fstc.org/subscriber> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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