PacketMotion Solution Manages Network/Application Activity for IBM Mainframes
PacketSentry’s compliance, audit controls bypass expensive, risky modifications typically required for mainframe applications
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PacketMotion today made available new audit and compliance controls for the mainframe environment. The company’s low-risk, operationally efficient PacketSentry solution manages network/application activity down to the user level.
"Enterprises are increasingly required to apply audit controls to mainframe applications, but there are unwanted costs and risks associated with modifying these applications to add the required controls,” said Jonathan Gohstand, VP of marketing at PacketMotion. “Our solution provides the detailed audit trail plus the reporting and policy enforcement required, with no software modifications or in-line appliances that affect performance or availability. The bottom line is cost-effective, application-level controls, rapidly deployed within one day and with no risk.”
PacketMotion’s PacketSentry solution creates an audit trail of every mainframe screen accessed via Telnet 3270 (TN3270) as well as what was entered on each screen by individual users. Crucially, the solution decodes mainframe user IDs, thereby reporting on specific mainframe user activities. For example, audit controls can be easily implemented to track activity of “elevated privilege” or superuser accounts normally used to modify applications or perform direct database updates. Furthermore, the audit trail is correlated with the Microsoft Windows domain IDs of the end users so that mainframe account misuse or sharing is easily detected and stopped.
Real-time controls are also supported, for example, to block use of a mainframe administration account except from specified domain-authenticated PCs or approved locations. Multiple languages are supported, as is transparent decryption of secure TN3270 using the optional PacketSentry Transparent SSL Inspector. When combined with existing capabilities to audit database (DB2) and web services (MQ) transactions, the TN3270 option completes PacketMotion’s offering for mainframe activity management in a single solution.
The new PacketMotion audit and compliance controls will be most beneficial to industries with significant information resources within mainframes, such as insurance, financial services, manufacturing, health care, and well as government agencies. These industries must conduct internal audits and fulfill compliance requirements such as SOX, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
PacketSentry TN3270 mainframe support is available now. Support for TN5250 (iSeries or AS/400) transactions is planned for an upcoming release. TN3270 mainframe support is available as an option to PacketSentry, with pricing starting at $50,000. More information is available at www.packetmotion.com.