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Topics & Trends: Privacy in the Data Center

Data center security used to be easier to implement. In fact, there was a time when data center managers could see all the inputs and outputs to the mainframe in one or two rooms. New technology and constant market pressures have caused simple data center security to be a thing of the past.

While bad publicity and enforced legal requirements are pushing IT security agendas, consumer sentiment is also a major driver in the changing landscape of data privacy. Consumers are demanding stricter security, as increasing amounts of their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is digitized and the staggering amount of data breaches grows to new heights.

According to many, 70% of all mission-critical data remains on the mainframe and much of that data relates to customer and consumer information. The rapid pace of today’s electronic business climate demands 24/7, “always-on” access to data. The mainframe, as the hub of enterprise data, feeds more PII to extended networks and platforms than ever before, thereby increasing the risks of compromising confidential consumer data.

A new PKWARE® whitepaper, “Spotlight on Mainframe Security: Privacy in the Data Center,”illustrates the encryption solutions available to protecting the confidentiality of data originating on mainframe systems and provides insight into securing that data as it is exchanged with unprotected external or shared networks.

This whitepaper is one of many PKWARE is authoring on the subject of mainframe data security. Visit www.pkware.com/mainframedatasecurity to view additional mainframe security whitepapers. Also, you can download a free 30-day trial of SecureZIP for z/OS to experience, firsthand, a data-centric solution that will protect the confidential data stored and transmitted in your mainframe environment.



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Product News: PKWARE Helps Customers Conform to NIST Data Security Updates

PKWARE invests considerable time monitoring regulatory changes and anticipating how they may affect our PKZIP® and SecureZIP® customers.

Recently, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a change to one of their standards that organizations using FIPS Mode for encryption processing will want to accommodate. If FIPS Mode processing is important for your data protection or compliance policies, you will need to update your PKZIP or SecureZIP software prior to the end of 2010.

The NIST is responsible for developing the standards and guidance for the cryptography used by Federal Government Agencies. This includes defining appropriate algorithms and cryptographic strengths suitable for meeting Federal Government security needs.

The NIST set a plan to phase out some existing algorithms over time, replacing them with progressively stronger algorithms. Some of these phase outs will commence at the end of 2010, and will affect FIPS 140-2 validation requirements.

To learn if your PKWARE product is affected by this upcoming change, read this PKZIP/SecureZIP Product Update or feel free to call us at 888.4.PKWARE or 414.289.9788. We’re happy to help!



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Product News: SecureZIP® and PKZIP® Offer Day One Support of Microsoft Office® 2010

Users of Microsoft Office 2010 looking to further enhance the product’s features and functionality will find that new versions of PKZIP and SecureZIP provide a solution with unparalleled usability.

PKZIP and SecureZIP for Windows desktop reduce file size to save valuable storage space and protect sensitive files created within Outlook®, Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint®. In addition, the products also help enterprise and government customers meet growing regulatory compliance and audit concerns and maintain control over the use of encryption and compression in their organization across multiple computing platforms.

PKWARE® worked extensively to not only ensure compatibility with Microsoft Office 2010, but also to ensure full functionality with the most recent Windows 7 operating system, meeting the quality requirements necessary to earn “Compatible with Windows 7” status. Therefore, both 32- and 64-bit versions of PKZIP and SecureZIP are available, allowing users to create ZIP archives directly from 32- and 64-bit implementations of Microsoft Office 2010 applications.

In addition to supporting Microsoft Office 2010, new version releases of PKZIP and SecureZIP for Windows desktop provide other improvements and feature enhancements, including:

  • Custom alternate extensions for mailed ZIP archives
  • Changes in FIPS mode that require files to be signed with the SHA-256 algorithm (or higher)
  • Improved support for the PPMd compression algorithm on 64-bit Windows OS that eliminates the need to run the 32-bit version

“PKWARE is a member of the Microsoft Developer Network and has a long history of serving the needs of the Windows community,” said Jim Peterson, Chief Scientist for PKWARE. “We are committed to Day One support of each new release of Microsoft operating systems and applications, so our customers have the maximum opportunity to take advantage of the new capabilities Microsoft offers.”

Free 30-day evaluations of PKZIP and SecureZIP for Windows desktop v12.5 are available from PKWARE’s Website.



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Company News: New Online Forums for PKZIP® and SecureZIP® for z/OS® Users

PKWARE® invites you to join two newly created Users Forums on LinkedIn.com. SecureZIP for z/OS Users Forum and PKZIP for z/OS Users Forum provide an interactive environment where users can exchange questions, share industry expertise, and help influence future development of PKWARE products on the z/OS platform.

As an integrated approach to help customers solve necessary business problems, the LinkedIn.com Users Forums serve as a collaborative environment for current mainframe customers, as well as newcomers to PKWARE products. With over 90% of the Fortune 100 relying on PKWARE mainframe products to solve a pervasive set of data compression and security challenges, we encourage you to engage with other users and top industry peers to solve your organization’s unique information management needs through these forums.

If you have questions about either SecureZIP for z/OS or PKZIP for z/OS, contact us here or call 888.4.PKWARE or 414.289.9788.