Respect My Authority Swapper, Halcyon Says
December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie
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Halcyon Software has added new features to its Authority Swapper product that will garner the respect of users in IBM i shops everywhere. Now, when an IBM i user swaps into a powerful user profile to accomplish a task, every screen in the session is diligently recorded by the product, providing an un-contestable trail of the user’s activity while they had the elevated authority. Halcyon unveiled the Authority Swapper two years ago to address concerns about users with elevated authority and the potential abuses that could stem from those powers. Instead of permanently granting users such special authorities as ALLOBJ or QSECOFR on their user profiles, Authority Swapper allows users to temporarily assume elevated authorities for the purpose of executing some task on the system, after which they go back to using their regular user profiles with lower authority (i.e. lower risk) levels. With previous version of the software, Halcyon would automatically record just the keystrokes entered by users during their elevated authority sessions using the tool. While that was helpful, it would require some work to recreate the actual content of the session. With last week’s launch of Authority Swapper version 10.0, Halcyon added the capability to automatically record the screens of users with elevated authority. Now, every screen that users view and every command that they enter are recorded, providing a rock-solid trail for skeptical auditors. John Dominic, vice president of sales for Halcyon, says the new release will simplify the audit process for compliance teams. “We are the first vendor to introduce this new feature, which effectively provides a visual surveillance recording making the forensics much clearer to auditors without IBM i skills,” Dominic says. “This technology will help a wide range of organizations, including banks, insurance companies, and the gaming industry to meet their security compliance obligations.” (While Halcyon may be the first provider of an authority swapping tool to include “visual surveillance” capabilities, that capability has been available for some time in other types of security software, including the Luminet user-monitoring software from Attachmate and its OEM partner, Intellinx.) For more information on Authority Swapper, see the vendor’s website at www.halcyonsoftware.com. RELATED STORIES Halcyon Delivers Japanese Version of Management Tools Halcyon Software Unveils Authority Swapper, iPhone Interface
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