Internal threats  are more possible than not.

Editor's Note: This article introduces the white paper "The State of IBM i Security 2013."

A star employee sits in her office, curled over her keyboard. It's after 5:00, but she's still here. Coworkers assume a promotion is in the works and admire her loyalty, but she's got different motives. She types a few characters and hits Enter. No luck. Undeterred, she tries a different combination of letters. Nothing…yet. The question isn't when will she gain access to sensitive IBM i data, the question is will the security team catch her in time?

A breach like this might seem farfetched in the real world—where Power Systems servers running IBM i maintain a solid reputation for impenetrable security. But the data from the 2013 State of IBM i Security Study proves these internal threats more possible than not.

The face of the cybercriminal is changing, and any number of improper security controls—allowing default passwords, not limiting sign-on attempts, keeping inactive profiles—could make breach attempts successful.

While IBM i is one of the most securable servers, the prevailing use of incorrect or lax configuration settings leaves it vulnerable to threats.

Even if you would personally vouch for the integrity of your staff, remember that SOX, PCI, and other regulatory compliance auditors aren't asking, "Would they?" or "Might they?" but "Do they have the ability to?"

The annual State of IBM i Security study strives to help executives, IT managers, system admins, and auditors understand the important IBM i security exposures and compliance violations and how to correct them in the most efficient and economical way.

Why This Study Is Important

This year marks the 25th birthday of the AS/400, as well as the 10th anniversary of the State of IBM i Security study. From the AS/400 to iSeries, System i, and finally Power Systems running IBM i, PowerTech has followed the evolution and provided invaluable security insight from more than 1,700 servers worldwide.

The results from the 2013 study, and the universal nature of IBM i vulnerabilities, lead us to conclude that if you have IBM i systems in your data center, your organization might suffer from similar internal control deficiencies.

What This Study Means for You

Your IBM i server likely runs your mission-critical business applications—and has for 20 years or more—but the staff that set up server security may be long gone.

To complicate things, the integrated nature of many IBM i security controls has caused confu­sion over who is responsible for the configuration—IBM, the customer, or the application provider. As such, many systems operate with default settings due to lack of ownership.

You know an IBM i audit is long overdue, but you're too busy grappling with:

• Knowledge gaps
• Overextended staff
• Lean IT budgets

Too often, IBM i security projects take a backseat to Windows and UNIX platforms because of the perception that IBM i is less vulnerable. Consequently, as the threat landscape looms ever greater, the administration of IBM i security controls has lapsed and guards are down.

Now here's the good news: The weaknesses identified through our assessments and docu­mented in this study are caused by poor or missing configurations that can—and should—be corrected.

This study shows you the most common and dangerous IBM i security exposures; outlines how to correct them; and explains how these relate to compliance legislation, industry regulations, and IT guidelines and best practices.

The Power Systems Landscape

IBM introduced the AS/400 in 1988 as its computing system for small- and medium-sized compa­nies. Today, the Power Systems product line ranges from small servers with a single processor to the Power 780 server, which can have up to 16 POWER7+ processors with four cores each.

The IBM i community includes a large and loyal base throughout the world—with more than 380,000 systems estimated in production use. The PowerTech data was collected from a cross-section of systems of varying sizes.

Companies in retail, financial, manufacturing, and distribution industries typically purchased their Power Systems server as part of an integrated business system. Today, more than 16,000 banks run their core banking and financial applications on an IBM i server. Many retailers use financial applications that store credit card data on the system. Some of the well-known software vendors that provide applications are:

• Oracle (JD Edwards ERP)
• Lawson/Intentia (Financials)
• FISERVE
• SAP
• IBM Domino
• IBM WebSphere
• Jack Henry (Core Banking)
• INFOR (BPICS, MAPICS, Infinium, Infor ERP XA applications, PRISM)
• Manhattan Associates (Supply chain)

Given the mission-critical data stored on these systems, maintaining a secure configuration should be a top priority.

PowerTech is your security expert in managing evolving compliance and data privacy threats with automated security solutions for IBM Midrange Servers. Our ServerProven security solutions are straightforward and save your valuable IT resources, giving you ongoing protection and peace of mind.   Because IBM Power System (iSeries and AS/400) servers are used to host particularly sensitive corporate data, it is imperative that you practice proactive compliance security. As an IBM Advanced Business Partner with over 1,000 customers worldwide, PowerTech understands corporate vulnerability and the risks associated with data privacy and access control.   Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based PowerTech Group was founded by security experts in 1996. In 2004, PowerTech was awarded the prestigious Industry Driver APEX Award from iSeries NEWS. That same year, PowerTech also won the APEX award as the Editor’s Choice in the Security category. PowerTech is also the only iSeries security company to have been recognized as a finalist in the IBM Beacon awards.

The PowerTech security solutions provide definitive security coverage for iSeries and AS/400 systems.