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Don’t take your eye off the security ball when it comes to open source.

By Steve Pitcher

I’ve had a few conversations in the last few weeks about open-source solutions on IBM i. While I’m an advocate and even sometimes a cheerleader for open solutions, these conversations have left me with concern about IBM i security. Don’t get me wrong; progression toward the open-source world is needed in our community. It opens up doors to hire new people with new ideas and sets them up to become productive as developers very quickly. We’re given the opportunity now, at this point, to do arguably what we’ve not been able to do as a community with our traditional applications written in RPG: enforce rudimentary object-level controls and not give away the keys to the kingdom with special authorities.

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If you’re pressed for time, this quick review can help you verify that your security configuration hasn’t gone totally sideways.

By Carol Woodbury

It’s rare that people have extra time. And while most administrators don’t want to admit it, many are so pressed for time they ignore security altogether. So here are five things you can do to take a quick look at security to make sure the most critical configurations on your IBM i have been examined.

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IBM i security configuration is usually pretty straightforward, but there are a few things that, misconfigured, can produce results you don’t expect. Carol explores some of those areas of the system.

By Carol Woodbury

In most areas, IBM has done a decent job of making it obvious what the outcome of a particular setting will be, but some outcomes aren’t so obvious. In addition, I’ve seen administrators turn a straightforward configuration upside down and make it very difficult to understand the actual result of their configuration choice. In this article, I explain these scenarios in hopes that you will take a look at your own configurations and make sure you’re getting the outcome you think you are.

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IBM i has never been immune to malware—but threats to businesses are greater than ever.

By HelpSystems

Editor's note: This article introduces the May 2020 Webinar: How to Protect IBM i from the New Malware Threats of 2020, which is On-Demand and available to download and view from the MC Webcast Center.

Many employees are now working from home. Research from March 2020 shows home networks are 3.5 times more likely than corporate networks to have at least one malicious program!

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In this crazy, topsy-turvy world we’re in, we’re finding creative ways to stay sane in our personal lives. How does this translate into our work life, specifically to IBM i security?

By Carol Woodbury

I don’t know about you, but during this strange time we find ourselves in, I’m doing some “interesting” things to stay sane. For one thing, I’m doing a lot of cleaning. I’ve raked parts of my yard that have never been raked in the 20 years I’ve lived in my house! And my closets have never been more organized. I’ve also dug out my sewing machine—not just to make masks but to do other projects as well. Finally, I’ve found myself cooking and baking things I’ve never attempted before. What does this have to do with IBM i security? I thought it might be fun to translate the sort of things we’re doing in our personal lives into IBM i security: cleaning, resurrecting old skills, and trying out new ones.

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The move to work from home brings increased security risks. Carol discusses what can be done to detect and defend against these new risks.

By Carol Woodbury

With the onslaught of the Coronavirus, many organizations have been forced to move their employees into a work-from-home status—often with little or no notice. From a system-security perspective, working from home is inherently less secure than working within the confines of a local network. And this risk is magnified by the volume of employees working from home, the lack of a formal work-from-home policy, and the rapidity with which this move had to be made.

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Why should organizations—including IBM i shops—consider using encryption to protect their data? Carol describes the areas where encryption can be used and why she’s a strong believer in implementing it.

By Carol Woodbury

Large financial institutions used to be the only organizations that implemented encryption. Now it’s becoming more commonplace. Why? One reason is because it’s become easier to implement; you no longer need hardware encryption cards, for example. But another reason is because more organizations realize that encryption is a vital layer of defense for protecting their data—often the last layer to prevent compromise. And I fully agree with that reason. As you know, I’m a huge fan of multiple layers of defense, and encryption is one of those important layers. Let’s take a look at the various ways encryption can be implemented on IBM i.

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IBM ships several tools to make securing the system easier…but are you using them? Carol describes the tools’ features and explains how to use them.

By Carol Woodbury

I’m still surprised when I describe commands or features of IBM i that assist with securing the system or managing security settings and people aren’t aware of them or aren’t using them. So today I’d like to describe some of these commands and features and, hopefully, you’ll find something that will help make your security life easier.

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  • White Paper: Node.js for Enterprise IBM i Modernization

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    FortraIT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators is small.

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  • Node.js on IBM i Webinar Series Pt. 2: Setting Up Your Development Tools

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  • Expert Tips for IBM i Security: Beyond the Basics

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  • Encryption on IBM i Simplified

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