Category: Cryptography

Published on November 4, 2013

At one point, your company may have made the decision to take security more seriously. It might have been a strategic initiative, or it might have been in response to a past security breach. The CEO might have addressed the company or sent out a…

Published on October 29, 2013

You and your team may understand the importance of encryption and data security, but that doesn't mean the people who write the checks get it yet. As a mainframe security professional, part of your job is making sense of the challenges of keeping the data…

Published on October 15, 2013

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is the increasingly popular and common practice of employees bringing their personal devices to use at work. Many people who own laptops and smart phones are more proficient at using their own devices than their work-issued hardware. People tend to…

Published on October 7, 2013

Technology executives run the risk of believing that no news is good news Since IT and mainframe managers are so used to SMS and email alerts warning them of system malfunctions, it becomes harder to seek out and solve the problems that are not glaringly…

Published on September 30, 2013

Biometrics offer an alternative kind of security, but at a cost Apple recently released its new iPhone, the 5s, which is one of the first widespread consumer devices to use biometrics as a primary security feature. The phone allows users to unlock the phone, as…

Published on September 25, 2013

Big Data can be a high-stakes game. Here's how to minimize your chances of losing. The revelations of the reach of the NSA's PRISM program revealed to the world just how critical privacy, security, and encryption are. Many users discovered that data and communication which…

Published on August 15, 2013

Password complexity requirements are designed to protect data. However, some complexity requirements can make data less secure, and some unnecessarily inconvenience users. Password hacks can come about in a number of ways. Passwords can be guessed, hacked by brute force, or stolen, leaving the data…

Published on July 10, 2013

Data encryption is an important component of any security strategy, whether on a mainframe or any other computing system. It obfuscates data from people and machines alike, and provides an incredible level of protection against hackers and data thieves. Are you doing encryption right? Here…

Published on July 8, 2013

Mainframes are big complex systems. Housing and managing the data stored and processed on these systems involves many access points and lots of risks. Because of these numerous risks, it is important to periodically assess the security measures your company has in place to make…

Published on May 14, 2013

Usernames and passwords are the most common way to secure access to software accounts and data. But passwords don't work -- at least not as well as they should, and especially not the way they used to. Sophisticated phishing schemes, brute force attacks, social engineering,…