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AS/400 Screen Saver Shields Sensitive Data
by Alex Woodie
Kisco Information Systems last week introduced a new
security solution designed to help prevent unauthorized viewing of AS/400 screens. ScreenSafer/400
behaves much like a regular screen saver in a PC environment, in that it kicks in after a period of idle time
and displays colorful animation that hides the original screen. However, ScreenSafer/400 adds an element
of security by requiring users to enter their password to resume their session, and doesn't interrupt the user's
session.
When a session becomes inactive, ScreenSaver/400 starts deforming the original screen and displaying
humorous messages and sayings. The software ships with more than 300 sayings, including "Character
Density: The number of very weird people in the office," "Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives," and
"Artificial Intelligence usually beats real stupidity."
It is hoped that the entertainment value alone will encourage people to use this unique program, and
perhaps make their computing environment more secure in the process, says its developer, Trevor Seeney of
Sentinex. "If a screen-saver is interesting and
entertaining to the user community--as well as functional--then it will get used," says Seeney. "And anything
that encourages us to use good security is a good thing."
One of the key operational features of ScreenSafer/400 is that it doesn't end a user's session when it kicks in,
which would require a second log on and could potentially cause transactions to be lost, Kisco says. This
feature separates ScreenSafer/400 from similar products on the market, says Rich Loeber, president of the
Mt. Kisco, New York, company that is marketing and distributing the software.
"Most workstation timeout solutions that are presently available force a log off," he stated in a press release.
"This can cause inaccuracies and consume time unnecessarily if the user is in the middle of a complicated
process."
To resume a temporarily halted session when using ScreenSafer/400, a user hits the Enter key and types in
his password. By using the same user password to log on to AS/400 or iSeries servers (the software uses
OS/400's "Check Password" API to validate the user's password), Kisco says it's doing its part to reduce
password creep and forgotten passwords.
In addition to preventing passers-by from reading confidential information on a screen, ScreenSafer/400
helps prevent user IDs from being hijacked and employed in nefarious ventures, the company says.
Users have control over several settings with the software. They can set the inactivity timer to configure
how much time before ScreenSafer/400 kicks in. They can also choose from several different options
governing how the screen is rendered once ScreenSafer/400 kicks in, including scrolling screens, garbled
screens, or blank screens. For maximum security protection, however, Kisco recommends that users choose
either the garbled or the blank screen.
The software also includes an "alert" function that allows systems or security administrators to broadcast
messages that will appear on the screen saver.
ScreenSafer/400 works with all 5250 dumb terminals and 5250 terminal emulation programs. It should also
work with 5250 screen-scraper products, but results could vary depending on the methodology employed by
the particular screen rejuvenation software vendor, Loeber says.
Kisco gives systems administrators the option of rolling the software to all of their employees or to select
employees only. A license to install ScreenSafer/400 on an unlimited number of terminals or workstations
costs $895. Visit www.kisco.com for more information
and a trial download.
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