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Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

Forgotten password? You're not alone

Many of us will have come back from the extended holiday period ready to start the New Year with a bang, only to realise that we’ve forgotten our computer password and can’t do anything until the IT department resets it. It’s not just the fact that you’ve been out of the office for 10 days. By insisting on “strong” passwords, IT departments are in...

/security Information Security

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

The security breaches of 2011

2011 presented some fascinating security breaches that could have been prevented. Here are my top three trends, and how to avoid them in 2012! Online identity and social media sites The successful launch of Google+, and its privacy feature which allows users to group certain contacts into different “circles”, highlighted not only that there was...

/security Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

An endless challenge? Or a new beginning?

In my last blog post I wrote about the problems banks will have with fraud detection when the three day payment process window shortens dramatically from January 2012. Because existing risk-engine strategies do not have the benefit of knowing the real-time status of the card holder, banks struggle to determine which transactions are fraudulent and ...

/security /payments Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

New payment rules - new mindset!

As of 1st January 2012, the three-day wait for fund transfers will be over. Banks must ensure that for all electronic payments (e.g. online banking transfers), the money reaches the payee’s account in a much more timely manner. This is likely to cause problems for banks and may well identify weaknesses in their approach to fraud management in terms...

/security /payments Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

Interest in data theft goes mainstream

It’s not every day that you see banking security reported in a tabloid read by 2.7 million people across the UK, but The Sun’s interest in data theft highlights just how mainstream the topic has become. We are just a month from Christmas, and one of the most popular presents of the festive season, Microsoft’s X Box LIVE, has been targeted by crimin...

/security Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

Isis 1 year on: don't forget security on NFC payments

Happy birthday, Isis! This week sees the one-year anniversary of the initial launch of Isis, the US joint venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless to create a national mobile payments network that will allow consumers to use their phones to pay for goods at the point-of-sale using NFC technology. The opportunity for NFC take-up i...

/security Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

Hello this is your fake bank calling...

With the UK’s “Get Safe Online Week” drawing to a close today, hopefully awareness of fraudulent online activity is on the up. The campaign highlighted all sorts of risks consumers may face with online banking, online shopping and their use of smartphones to browse internet websites, and explained how they could take care and be aware. Unfortunate...

/security Information Security

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

On fraud prevention banks need to get the balance right

Fraud prevention for financial institutions should be on the top of the agenda for banks and it seems their customers are beginning to think so too. Aite Group surveyed North American financial institutions’ fraud-prevention capabilities and found that customers are choosing those financial institutions with better security. This is a very welcome...

/security /retail Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

Mobile wallet - who and what will be a winner?

This week, McKinsey and EFMA issued a report on the future of mobile banking in Europe. Is it a surprise? Not exactly. What strikes me about the report is that whilst banks admit that they are not investing enough they do recognise that mobile banking is the way forward and will become the service of choice amongst consumers. What also strikes ...

/security Innovation in Financial Services

Pat Carroll

Pat Carroll Founder/Executive Chairman at ValidSoft

How to reap rewards of m-commerce growth

A clutch of recent news stories makes all too clear the opportunities and the challenges of the mobile payments revolution. First up, research from Barclays Corporate forecasts that m-commerce in the UK will increase from £1.3bn in 2011 to £19.3bn in 2021, or from 0.5% of total retail sales to nearly 5%. That is a huge opportunity, and as m-commer...

/payments Innovation in Financial Services

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