01/27/2012
Have you jumped on the smartphone and tablet bandwagon yet?
10/01/2011
IT security is no picnic, but it does sometimes involve a PICNIC. As our cover story author Kevin Schroeder says, "If, by stroke of luck or genius, you did manage to create a totally secure system, you'd still have the PICNIC problem: Problem In Chair Not In Computer." In "Best Practices for Developing Secure PHP Web Apps," page 11, Kevin explains that perfect security is an unrealistic goal unless you have unlimited time and resources—and who among us does? However, he says that by following a
06/01/2011
My grandmother-in-law just turned 93, and to celebrate, we took her out to her favorite Mexican restaurant and sang to her while she wore a giant blue sombrero. IBM is also celebrating a birthday, its 100th, and in "100 Years of IBM Innovation," Rita Sanders offers her own version of the "big blue" sombrero with a retrospective look at some of the IBM-developed technologies that have had an impact on all of us. Rita's illustrated timeline offers glimpses of the original company logo (spoiler:
05/16/2011
For my various personal online shopping, financial, and community activities, I have a hardcopy password list that's in eight-point text and covers two pages, and I've filled in the margins and the backs of each page with handwritten additions. For work, the situation is similar, although there's only one page—with 58 passwords on it. Not an ideal "system," is it? Wouldn't it be great if technology, the cause of this conundrum, could be the cure? In "Single Sign-On with Federated Identities,"
12/01/2010
What better time than December for a sleighful of free IBM i tools? System iNEWS put out a call for readers to tell us about their favorite i tools—and you responded like the true community-spirited i pros that you are. You're bound to find many treasures in this list of your fellow i pros' favorite tools.
03/08/2010
Here's a roundup look at the latest action on the security and availability news beats -- Raz-Lee, Crossroads Systems, Help/Systems, and nuBridges--all working their magic for the IBM i world. *Read more...
02/24/2010
Safestone Technologies, a supplier of IBM i security and compliance solutions, announces that Nike, well-known manufacturer of athletic wear and equipment, has chosen Safestone's DetectIT security solutions as its worldwide standard for security audit and compliance solutions on the IBM i. Nike operates in over 160 countries and has more than 30,000 employees.--Bill Austin *Read more. . .
12/21/2009
Raz-Lee Security recently announced enhancements to its iSecurity product suite, and I spoke with Eli Spitz, Raz-Lee Security's vice president of business development, to get more information, as well as to get his take on the latest trends he's noticing in the security market as 2009 winds down. *Read more...
12/09/2009
In response to hearing of a new service related to single sign-on, I spoke with Pat Botz, president of Botz & Associates and formerly IBM's lead security architect for the IBM i, about SSO and learned what the true goal of SSO should be. Contrary to what you might think, SSO is actually not the primary goal. The primary objective is to efficiently and cost-effectively manage authentication to corporate IT resources. Looking at the SSO problem that way is the key to effectively choosing and
12/01/2009
If you could give someone just one tip about the IBM i system—your best advice in 100 words or less—what would it be? I posed this question to the "i" industry and received many great pieces of wisdom from a broad spectrum of contributors. I've compiled some of them here for a quick read that will leave you enlightened and possibly even inspired. *Read more...
10/07/2009
"When it comes to storage, virtualization is becoming increasingly feasible, as Mel Beckman explains in "Storage Area Networks Virtualize Disk." To get a feel for how things are trending in this area, I recently spoke with Glenn Haley, senior product manager at Crossroads Systems, which just released its new SPHiNX for Power Systems virtual tape solution. Haley explains how virtual tape can save you money as well as provide increased security and reliability for data storage and backup and
09/14/2009
"The biggest problem I see in dealing with my customers is the edicts that they receive from their external auditors that come in to do SOX audits, mostly. The auditors are coming from a nontechnical background and are working off of a checklist, as I talk about in my security audit checklist article appearing in the October System iNEWS [you, dear reader, can get a sneak peek at this article--the link is in the interview]." *Read more…
07/08/2009
Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen's June 23 Alertbox article advocates stopping the use of masked passwords on websites: Masked passwords are when you type in a password and whatever you type is replaced by a row of bullets or asterisks. I agree with Nielsen's assertion that most of the time when we're typing in passwords, we're sitting alone in our offices anyway. Who's lurking over our shoulders to watch? *Read more...
06/22/2009
If ever there was something computer related that might be called a panacea, it's journaling. Journaling can help you with security, availability, and backup/recovery. One of the best-known journal gurus in the IBM i industry is, of course, Larry Youngren. Larry has a long history of writing articles for us here at System iNEWS, and I've listed some of his more recent articles here. These are a great way to learn all about journaling, so you can make sure that yours are optimized and that
06/03/2009
I was on a call recently with Gartner, Inc., analyst John Pescatore to learn about credit card tokenization. Pescatore, who specializes in Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), encryption related to PCI DSS, and overall security of Internet systems for Gartner, explained that tokenization can reduce a company's odds of a data breach as well as reduce the cost and complexity of PCI DSS compliance and auditing. A couple of other Penton Media editors, including System iNEWS
04/29/2009
Apparently Scott's video blogs have spread like wildfire, even to Britain! So Scott is about to go to their booth when at that moment Jon Paris RUNS up to Scott and exclaims, 'Scott, there's a guy in the next aisle lying on the floor who says he's too exhausted from the show to get up. You've got to come get him on video.'" *Read more...
04/27/2009
The IBM i industry's very own Gene Gaunt ran the Boston Marathon this week! Gene's most recent article for System iNetwork is "Fanfare for the Common Cryptography." He ran for Team Fox, the Michael J. Fox charity in support of finding a cure for Parkinson's disease. Thanks to Rory Hewitt, who brought Gene's efforts to our attention in a forum post here on SystemiNetwork.com. *Read more...
04/15/2009
I had a quick visit with Tom Pojatina, channel manager for LXI Enterprise Storage, to learn about an IBM i product that helps simplify backups and recoveries. Tom told me about LXI Media Management System (LXI MMS). Tom says that LXI MMS "is simplified intelligent backup recovery. That's what differentiates us. Our goal is to ensure that what is on the system is on tape." *Read more...
02/25/2009
How long have you been involved with the i system? Email me two or three sentences describing how you work with the i, along with a quick snapshot in JPG, PNG, or GIF format, and I'll post it here, and you might even show up in the print magazine as a featured reader! *Read more...
02/09/2009
Mel Beckman, a System iNEWS tech editor and a top network engineering consultant, mentioned that he has been helping a lot of companies downsize and that he has collected a slew of cost-saving tips. I asked him if he would share some of them with me, so that I could share them here with you. *Read more...