Raz-Lee Lands Security Contract with Israel’s Fifth Largest Bank

January 5, 2010 Alex Woodie

The First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) has standardized its System i security on software from Raz-Lee Security following a successful trial period, the vendor announced last month. The announcement marks another customer win for Raz-Lee, whose R&D organization continues to distinguish itself with innovative products.

Founded nearly 40 years ago, FIBI is the firth largest banking group in Israel, and today operates 175 branches in the country, as well as FIBI Bank branches in England and Switzerland. Through its various subsidiaries, the group provides an array of financial services, including deposits, commercial and private lending, securities trading, pension consulting, and portfolio management.

Like many banks, FIBI relies on IBM System i servers to manage its operations, and like many System i customers, FIBI places a premium on the security of its applications and data. To that end, the company recently analyzed the market for third-party System i security tools, and settled on Raz-Lee and its iSecurity suite.

After using iSecurity on a limited number of System i servers, FIBI liked what it saw and decided to license two iSecurity modules for a broader number of servers. The bank today is using Firewall, which provides exit point controls for network access points on System i servers; and Audit, which monitors user activity, access, and actions taking place on System i servers.

Raz-Lee is proud to have a bank as prominent as FIBI as a customer, says Eli Spitz, Raz-Lee’s vice president of business development. “Banks and financial organizations, which handle particularly sensitive information, are precisely the clients for whom we developed iSecurity,” Spitz says in a press release. “Our system provides airtight protection for the customer’s System i servers and enables effective, convenient monitoring of all user permissions and activities.”

Raz-Lee, which was founded in Israel and today is based outside of New York City, has been actively developing its software while other security software vendors appear to be putting their R&D teams on hiatus. For example, in November, Raz-Lee launched a new iSecurity module called Native Object Security that allows i OS shops to implement object-level security on their systems without the hassle of manually configuring it through the operating system. Today, iSecurity has 19 modules, making it one of the most comprehensive suites of i OS security software on the market.