Find out in this report how the two Mainframe Security solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
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:
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.
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
IBM Security zSecure V2.1.1 suite consists of multiple individual products designed to help you administer your mainframe security, monitor for threats, enforce policy compliance, audit usage and configurations, and assist in compliance management and audit reporting.
IBM Security zSecure Admin, IBM Security zSecure Visual, and IBM Security zSecure CICS Toolkit together provide administrative, provisioning, and management components that can significantly reduce administration time, effort, and costs, and help improve productivity and response time, as well as help reduce training time for new administrators.
IBM Security zSecure Audit, IBM Security zSecure Alert, and IBM Security zSecure Command Verifier together provide security policy enforcement, audit, monitoring, and compliance management capability. These offerings help ease the burden of compliance audits, help reduce the time and costs of performing compliance and monitoring, can improve security and incident handling, and can increase overall operational effectiveness.
IBM Security zSecure Adapters for QRadar SIEM V2.1.1, new to the suite, collects, formats, and sends enriched mainframe System Management Facility (SMF) audit records to IBM Security QRadar SIEM to be included in the enterprise-wide integrated security information and event management (SIEM), log management, anomaly detection, incident forensics, and configuration and vulnerability management.
IBM Security zSecure offers the following features:
Centralized Security Administration: IBM Security zSecure allows users to centrally manage and administer mainframe security configurations, user accounts, and access controls across multiple systems, simplifying the complex task of security administration and ensuring consistent security policies.
Auditing and Compliance Monitoring: The suite provides comprehensive auditing and compliance monitoring capabilities, capturing and analyzing security events, generating detailed audit trails. It assists organizations in meeting regulatory compliance requirements and internal security policies.
Real-time Monitoring and Alerting: Users can leverage real-time monitoring and alerting features to proactively detect and respond to security incidents or suspicious activities on the mainframe, enabling timely incident response and reducing the impact of potential threats.
Security Event Visualization: With its graphical user interface, IBM Security zSecure offers convenient representations of security events, system settings, and more. The solution provides users with an intuitive and user-friendly interface for easier analysis, reporting, and visualization of security-related information.
Command Verification and Policy Enforcement: IBM Security zSecure's Command Verifier automatically validates and audits system commands issued by privileged users, helping enforce security policies and reducing the risk of accidental or unauthorized changes.
Compliance Reporting: Users can generate detailed compliance reports using IBM Security zSecure to demonstrate adherence to regulatory requirements, industry standards, and internal security policies.
Integration with SIEM Solutions: IBM Security zSecure integrates seamlessly with Security Information and Event Management solutions, allowing for the correlation and analysis of mainframe security events alongside events from other enterprise systems.
User Behavior Analytics: IBM Security zSecure incorporates advanced analytics capabilities to detect anomalies in user behavior, helping identify potential security threats or insider risks through behavior profiling and anomaly detection algorithms.
Secure Configuration Assessment: The solution enables users to assess and validate the security configurations of mainframe systems, ensuring compliance with best practices and industry standards while identifying and addressing potential security weaknesses or vulnerabilities.
Secure File Transfer: IBM Security zSecure facilitates secure file transfers between mainframe systems and external entities, employing encryption and secure protocols to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data during transit.
Mainframe Vulnerability Assessment: Users of the solution can conduct vulnerability assessments of mainframe systems using IBM Security zSecure, identifying and remediating potential security weaknesses and vulnerabilities to maintain a robust security posture.
Mainframe Forensics: IBM Security zSecure provides capabilities for mainframe forensics, enabling detailed analysis and investigation of security incidents and unauthorized activities, aiding in incident response, and supporting post-incident forensic investigations.
Users of IBM Security zSecure will experience the following benefits:
Simplified security administration
Improved access control management
Comprehensive auditing and compliance monitoring
Real-time monitoring and alerting
Seamless integration with SIEM solutions
Advanced user behavior analytics
Integration with Identity and Access Management systems
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Mainframe vulnerability assessment
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