• Trinity Guard Brings Security Suite Up to Speed with IBM i 7.5

  September 21, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM put a major focus on improving security with the release of IBM i 7.5 earlier this year, with stronger out-of-the-box default configurations, new password controls, and improved monitoring. With the launch of TG Suite 3.0, Trinity Guard is helping its customers get the most out of those security improvements.

  IBM made a slew of security improvements with the launch of IBM i 7.5, which it unveiled in May and which shipped soon thereafter. Highlights include the elimination of security level 20, a new password level 4 that includes 512-bit encryption, the elimination of default passwords, and new table functions …

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• Guru: SIEM Is Only Part Of IBM i Cybersecurity

  March 28, 2022 Bruce Bading

  Many times, we hear from IBM i business owners that their SIEM – that’s short for Security Information and Event Management – is their cybersecurity solution for the IBM i. But that can’t be true, and I want to explain why it is part of the security shield but certainly not all of it.

  Let’s start with SIEMs and how they fit into cybersecurity frameworks. SIEM is mentioned in the PCI appendix, but not once in the core of the 250+ PCI DSS requirements, likewise, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework lists event monitoring as one of the 100s (1/100s) of NIST …

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• Keeping Up With Open Source Security Updates

  May 26, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Open source is a source of technological innovation on IBM i, in multiple respects. But it also opens the platform up to additional security vulnerabilities. That’s why it’s important to stay on top of security patches, for the core operating system as well as the open source technologies that are helping to transform it.

  IBM does a good job of keeping up with security vulnerabilities are found in the operating system as well as the multitude of open source technologies that are included with it. In the last five weeks, IBM has issued several security bulletins for core open source …

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• Trinity Guard Unveils New Tools for Linux, Db2 for i

  November 18, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Trinity Guard is on the move. The Houston, Texas, based security software company, which is the spiritual successor to the PentaSafe products, is rolling out a full auditing solution for Linux. It’s also developing a Linux version of its security management tool, TGCentral, with an AIX version up next. Plus it’s months away from releasing an encryption solution for Db2 for i.

  2020 has not been easy for anyone, but it’s not stopping the folks at Trinity Guard from moving forward on its roadmap items. Near the top of that list is increased support for running on Linux, which has …

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• Security Still the Top Concern as Privacy Regs Loom

  February 12, 2020 Alex Woodie

  For the fourth year in a row, security is the number one concern of the IBM i installed base, according to HelpSystems’ 2020 IBM i Marketplace Survey. IBM i shops are clearly concerned about the need to prevent unauthorized access to applications and data. But security’s first cousin, data privacy, also stands to gain more attention with the recent passage of data privacy laws, such as GDPR and CCPA.

  HelpSystems released the results of its latest marketplace survey last month, as it has done for the past six years. And just as it has for every year since 2017, security …

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• HelpSystems Bolsters Data Loss Prevention with Clearswift Buy

  December 4, 2019 Alex Woodie

  HelpSystems completed the first acquisition of the Kate Bolseth era this week with the purchase of Clearswift, a UK-based provider of data loss prevention (DLP) solutions. The software will play nicely with HelpSystems’ existing managed file transfer (MFT) offerings for IBM i and other platforms, according to new CEO Bolseth, who indicates that more and bigger acquisitions are on the horizon.

  Clearswift develops what it calls adaptive DLP, or A-DLP, technology that can automatically stop sensitive data from leaving the digital bounds of a company. When installed on a network gateway, the software will analyze the content of the documents …

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• Why Curbstone Picked iSam Blue for HA

  September 12, 2018 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to picking an IBM i high availability vendor, there are a lot of factors that come into play. Does the product do what I need it to do? Are the license and maintenance fees reasonable? Will the vendor give me the support I need? When the folks at Curbstone considered HA offerings for its IBM i-based credit card authorization portal, all signs pointed to iSam Blue.

  Founded in 2002, Curbstone has built a business around credit card authorization software, particularly on the IBM i platform. The company’s founder and CEO, Ira Chandler, wrote the first commercial credit …

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• Townsend Taps Authy To Strengthen 2FA on IBM i

  February 14, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Townsend Security adopted a new smartphone app called Authy to deliver one-time authentication codes to users in the latest release of its two-factor authentication (2FA) solution for IBM i. The new Authy solution replaces the text messaging-based approach that it previously used, which soon will likely be no longer compliant with PCI regulations.

  2FA solutions are the emerging standard for authentication in the enterprise, following the long downward spiral in the effectiveness and efficiency of using passwords to confirm identity. Nearly everybody carries a smartphone these days, and enterprises have tried multiple ways to incorporate that fact into their authentication …

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• Will Security As A Service Relieve The Pressure On IBM i Shops?

  January 17, 2018 Dan Burger

  Security is all about control. Either you are in control of your data or you are out of control, possibly unaware that security exposure and vulnerabilities exist, and most importantly unable to respond in a coordinated and logical manner. Lack of security acumen and a fear of what a data breach could do to cripple or destroy a business has many companies searching for answers. It gets mentioned often enough by iTech Solutions Group customers that it led to iTech offering security as a service, which helps companies devise a security policy, puts controls in place, and monitors system security …

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• Time To Get Your 2FA On, IBM i Admins

  April 3, 2017 Alex Woodie

  System administrators working in regulated industries will soon be required to sign-in to servers using two-factor authentication (2FA), according to the latest PCI requirement. The industry regulation will impact administrators working with all types of computer systems, and will likely be enforced in late 2017 or early 2018, security experts say.

  In prior versions of the Payment Cardholder Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), only remote administrators were required to use 2FA, which bolsters the security of the sign-on process by requiring users to show “something you know,” like a password, as well as “something you have,” like a hardware …

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