Tango/04 Adds Record-Level Auditing to iSeries Security Tool

Published: March 7, 2006

by Alex Woodie

iSeries and Windows shops faced with regulatory compliance initiatives are the intended users of Tango/04 Computing Group's VISUAL Security Suite version 1.5, which was unveiled last week. By adding support for record-level auditing for DB2/400 and SQL Server databases, and, shortly, the Oracle database, the Spanish software company hopes to attract small and medium-sized businesses faced with new requirements to more closely monitor changes to their data.

VISUAL Security Suite (VSS) is a collection of utilities designed to help businesses lock down their critical business applications running on OS/400, Windows, Unix, and Linux servers. The suite shares several components with other Tango/04 suites, including the SmartConsole, a browser-based management console that was introduced last year with an overhaul of its flagship VISUAL Message Center suite, and various agents for monitoring iSeries and Windows servers and their databases. Tango/04 also monitors Unix and Linux logs, but its main focus, and the highest level of integration and support, is centered on the iSeries and Windows platforms.

On the iSeries side of things, VISUAL Security Suite provides a number of security capabilities, including monitoring of user activity and changes to user profiles, watching for changes made to OS/400 system settings, and monitoring access to OS/400 objects. The security suite also incorporates OS/400 exit point protection via PowerTech's PowerLock products, which it OEMs from the Kent, Washington, iSeries security specialist. The company wraps up all this functionality with pre-canned reports that spell out how the user stands in terms of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Basel II, 21 CFR Part 11, and new state laws governing security breaches, such as California's SB1386 and its ilk.

With VISUAL Security Suite version 1.5, the company has delved deeper into the database, and added support for monitoring database activity at the record level, including adds, changes, and deletes, made to DB2/400 and the SQL Server databases. By keeping an eye on changes made at the record level of the database, and keeping an auditable trail of these changes, Tango/04 says users track fraudulent activity and find innocent errors that could hurt their chances of passing a regulatory audit.

The record-level auditing capability is delivered through Data Monitor, which the company unveiled last October as a stand-alone tool or as a part of VSS (see "Tango/04 Looks for Database Changes with New Tool"). One of the key elements of Data Monitor is that it does not use database triggers to look for changes, which company officials say are resource-intensive, error-prone, and do not generate all the required logs. Instead, the company uses IBM journal receivers, at least on the DB2/400 side of things. Support for record-level monitoring of the Oracle database will be delivered in the near future, Tango/04 says.

In addition to the inclusion of the new Data Monitor and Smart Console components, Tango/04 has also made tweaks to the overall architecture of VSS with version 1.5. These changes reflect Tango/04's evolution into a provider of business service management (BSM) tools). In terms of functionality, this shift means new business process modeling, consolidation, event correlation, action automation, alert, and escalation capabilities.

Even non-technical personnel can keep abreast of changes to business systems using the dashboard features of VSS 1.5, company officials say. "Besides managing the growing complexity of their infrastructure, IT managers face the challenge of strengthening security and delivering top quality service to users," says Raul Aguirre, president and CEO of Tango/04. "At the same time, they are required by top executives to implement the necessary audit controls to meet regulatory requirements. Helping IT managers easily and efficiently solve all these dilemmas is the purpose of VISUAL Security Suite."

VISUAL Security Suite 1.5 is available now. Licenses for the basic package range from $3,800 to $60,000 per server. Additional modules can be added for an additional fee. For more information visit www.tango04.com.