CA VM:Secure for z/VM (CA VM:Secure) is a comprehensive security and directory management system for z/VM.
It’s designed to help you minimize risk by establishing rigid safeguards and controlling access to z/VM and Linux on System z guest resources.
CA VM:Secure helps prevent inadvertent security exposures by automatically maintaining synchronization between the z/VM user directory and your security rules. It helps make it easier to enforce IT-wide security practices automatically, identify security offenders and produce complete security reports and audit listings.
CA VM:Secure help you optimize your z/VM environment by providing:
- Control over access to all system resources
- Delegation of disk space management and automated direct access storage device (DASD) relocation
CA VM:Secure Features
CA VM:Secure offers the following features:
Comprehensive Security Management: CA VM:Secure provides a comprehensive suite of security management features to protect IBM z/OS mainframe systems, addressing various aspects of security such as access control, authentication, encryption, and threat detection.
Granular Access Control: The solution allows administrators to define fine-grained access controls based on user roles and privileges, ensuring that only authorized users have access to specific resources and operations.
Strong User Authentication: CA VM:Secure supports multiple authentication methods, including password-based authentication, digital certificates, and multi-factor authentication, providing flexibility in choosing the appropriate level of user authentication.
Audit and Compliance Support: The solution offers robust auditing capabilities, enabling organizations to monitor user activity, track system events, and generate detailed audit reports. This helps in meeting regulatory compliance requirements and facilitates internal auditing.
Data Protection: Users are offered encryption mechanisms to protect sensitive data at rest and during transmission, safeguarding valuable information from unauthorized access and ensuring data confidentiality and integrity.
Centralized Security Administration: The solution provides a centralized interface for managing security policies, user accounts, and system configurations. This streamlines administrative tasks, simplifies security management, and improves overall efficiency.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention: It includes built-in mechanisms for detecting and preventing security threats and unauthorized access attempts. This proactive defense helps in safeguarding the mainframe environment from potential attacks.
User Provisioning and De-Provisioning Automation: The solution offers automated workflows for user provisioning and de-provisioning, reducing manual effort and ensuring timely and accurate management of user accounts.
Secure File Transfer: CA VM:Secure supports secure file transfer capabilities between z/OS systems and other platforms, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data during transmission.
Integration with Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions: Users can benefit from its integration capabilities with external IAM solutions, allowing them to leverage existing identity management systems and establish centralized control over user identities and access.
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Customizable Reporting: CA VM:Secure offers customizable reports and dashboards, enabling organizations to generate tailored reports that provide insights into security events, user activity, and compliance status.
In 1976, IBM set the standard for security products when RACF was introduced!
From the beginning, the RACF Development Team has proudly brought you RACF, the premier product for securing your most valuable corporate data. Working closely with your operating system's existing features, IBM's award-winning Resource Access Control Facility (RACF) licensed program provides improved security for an installation's data. RACF protects your vital system resources and controls what users can do on the operating system.
You decide which resources you want to protect and which users need access to them. RACF provides the functions that let you:
- identify and verify system users
- identify, classify, and protect system resources
- authorize the users who need access to the resources you've protected
- control the means of access to these resources
- log and report unauthorized attempts at gaining access to the system and to the protected resources
- administer security to meet your installation's security goals
IBM Resource Access Control Facility Features
Resource Access Control Facility offers the following features:
Access Control: RACF allows administrators to define access controls for various system resources, including datasets, programs, transactions, and system commands. It enables granular control over who can access specific resources and what actions they can perform.
User Authentication: The solution supports multiple authentication methods, such as passwords, digital certificates, smart cards, and biometrics. It ensures that only authorized users with valid credentials can access the system.
Authorization: Users are provided with fine-grained authorization capabilities, allowing administrators to assign and manage permissions for individual users or groups. It enables the definition of resource-level and data-level access controls based on user roles and responsibilities.
Auditing and Logging: RACF generates detailed audit logs that capture security events, including successful and failed access attempts, resource modifications, and policy violations. These logs are essential for compliance auditing, security analysis, and incident investigation.
Secure Password Management: The product includes features for enforcing password policies, such as minimum length, complexity requirements, and password expiration. It supports password encryption and hashing to protect sensitive credentials.
Encryption and Data Protection: The solution provides encryption capabilities to protect sensitive data stored on mainframe systems. It supports encryption algorithms and cryptographic protocols for safeguarding data confidentiality and integrity.
Integration with External Authentication Systems: Users can integrate it with external authentication systems, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Active Directory, allowing them to leverage existing directories for authentication purposes.
Resource Monitoring and Control: It enables real-time monitoring and control of resource accesses, as well as providing alerts and notifications for suspicious activities, allowing administrators to respond promptly to potential security threats.
Compliance and Regulatory Support: RACF helps organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements by providing the necessary controls, audit trails, and reporting capabilities. It supports compliance frameworks such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Administration and Management: The solution offers a comprehensive set of administration and management tools for configuring, maintaining, and monitoring the security environment. It provides utilities for managing user accounts, defining security policies, and performing system-wide security administration tasks.
IBM Resource Access Control Facility Benefits
Some of the benefits that IBM RACF can offer its users are:
Enhanced security
Access control management
Authorization and authentication capabilities
Centralized control over resource access
Fine-grained access control policies
Audit trail and monitoring features
Compliance with regulatory requirements
Protection against unauthorized access
Segregation of duties
Efficient resource allocation and utilization
