Discover a better way to maintain and prove security compliance.

By Robin Tatam

If you’ve ever been one of the unfortunate souls charged with monitoring a computer system for compliance or been asked to generate reports for inquisitive auditors, you know what a huge drain such projects can be on time and resources.

Perhaps you struggle with interpreting what auditors really want to know—for example, determining what they consider a “powerful user.” Then, you run a slew of cryptic IBM commands to generate the information into a mixture of spooled files and database files. And finally, you try to get all of the disparate information downloaded to your PC and imported into Excel to parse out and analyze the information.

Then, there’s the constant stream of user and system events that you should be keeping an eye on. Although IBM i facilitates collecting the event information, performing any type of forensic analysis is not for the fainthearted. A few commands exist in the operating system, but they typically require the data to be placed into an output file and then parsed and analyzed with a query or application program. If you have multiple systems or partitions, be prepared to run all of these processes, on each of them, one-by-one.

Finding a Better Way
If you’re cringing while reading this, or are resigned to the fact that compliance is just too hard to accomplish, PowerTech’s Compliance Monitor solution will be a shining beacon of light. Compliance Monitor contains the functionality that you need to report on static metrics (user profiles, system values, and so forth) as well as dynamic events from the security audit journal. It includes advanced features such as user profile and system value scorecards (Figure 1) that rate your system against the included (customizable) security policy.

Figure 1: The system value scorecard rates your system against your security policy.

Compliance Monitor’s intuitive and powerful GUI (Figure 2) provides easy access to audit data, export functions, and a comprehensive compliance guide. Predefined report categories provide suggestions for what reports are needed for common regulatory requirements, such as PCI and SOX. In addition, you can customize any of the hundreds of available reports using powerful filtering features and store them in user-defined categories. Manipulate a report to reflect your personal style and then save your “custom” definition for the next time you want to run the report.

One of the most impressive Compliance Monitor features comes from its advanced architecture. This architecture enables reporting across numerous servers or partitions with a single request, including side-by-side reports to compare systems against each other. You can create “virtual” system groups to report against select partitions in a business unit or geographic location. Multiple systems often mean a struggle to keep large volumes of audit journal data online. Imagine being able to harvest and store that data in a central repository with 90 percent compression!

Total Integration
If you run other PowerTech solutions, such as Network Security to audit and control network transactions, or Authority Broker to control powerful users, Compliance Monitor can report on the entries placed in the audit journal by these products. The security officer has a single dashboard view into the “inner sanctum” of IBM i security events and security configuration, as well as the network access and user activities PowerTech monitors.

Once an audit report is run, the data is only a few mouse clicks away from being available to share as a PDF or to analyze using Excel. No more consolidating disparate information, parsing meaningless audit data, or struggling to download and share findings with your team or an auditor.

You can even have auditors use the software to run their own reports. The Compliance Monitor comes with unlimited desktop licenses and has a “no-change” methodology to prevent configuration changes on the host IBM i server.

For more information on how Compliance Monitor can slash your compliance workload, visit  the Compliance Monitor page.

By Robin Tatam

As part of PowerTech’s ongoing commitment to the IBM i community, I have been taking to the skies, the roads, and even the water (on a couple of ferries) recently. In a jam-packed, two-week tour in January, I presented security information to several user groups, taught a half-day security workshop, and visited a number of PowerTech customer locations. But, that’s just the start of my 2010 odyssey to get out on the road to meet you!

Read down for information on a number of exciting events already planned for the next month or so.

Stay secure!

Online Training

We are ready to launch our new online class for PowerTech Network Security. Each session is an easy-to-fit-into-your-schedule 60 minutes, and comes in segments to accommodate different levels of expertise. The cost for this class is $99 for the basic session; $198 for the 2-part advanced session; or $259 for both (basic and advanced), and will be held at 10:00 a.m. CST on the following dates:

Visit www.powertech.com/services/training/network-security.php for additional information, or to sign up.

Midrange User Groups

First, a big thank you the following groups for their welcoming hospitality in January: Fairfield, Connecticut; Long Island, New York; Fairfield, New Jersey; and Jefferson City, Missouri. It was a pleasure to be able to come and speak to your members on various security topics, and we hope that PowerTech’s support enables you to keep up your important work in the midrange community.

We are excited to be preparing for more user group visits in February and March. If you are in any of the following cities please contact the local group for more information about the session. We are sure they would welcome your support, plus it is a great way to network with other IBM i professionals in your area.

IBM i Security Workshops

Designed to teach the basic concepts of the capabilities built-in to IBM i, our recent security workshop in the St. Louis area, hosted in conjunction with our business partner MSI Systems Integrators (www.msiinet.com), sold out quickly. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn the basics of security, without the hassle and expense of traveling to IBM, when PowerTech comes to your area. We are now finalizing plans to bring “Learn How to Secure Your IBM i Server” to the following cities:

Workshops run from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and we provide lunch. The cost is only $49 per attendee. Seating is limited so register now to guarantee your place!

Jill Martin, Technical Services Manager at PowerTech, will present a 3-hour workshop, “Get a Jump Start Building Your IBM i Security Policy,” in the following cities:

• Las Vegas, NV, March 9
• Irvine, CA, March 10
• San Francisco, CA, March 11

Watch for more information.