A Their Story conversation with Sean Martin, Marco Ciappelli, and Key Resources president and co-founder, Cynthia Overby
As secure as the mainframe is, it is still another operating system with software running on it. Many information security programs tend to offer these systems special treatment, exemptions, and exceptions — especially when it comes to zero-trust frameworks.
One organization — Key Resources — has been looking at this problem for quite some time, and their President, Cynthia Overby, joined us for a conversation. Many critical infrastructure organizations such as financial institutions, insurance companies, and healthcare organizations rely on these mainframes for the most important of transactions and data — when you need some serious power, there is no way around it.
Because they are so critical, they can often be found off the IT and InfoSec grid, meaning that the traditional vulnerability management, configuration/policy/controls management, and monitoring/response activities wrapped around pretty much every other system in the organization tend to be handled separately. This makes things extremely difficult for organizations looking to implement a zero-trust architecture as these systems — not unlike others that get granted "exceptions" to the zero trust rules — can introduce a ton of risk if they aren't managed in concert with the rest of the components encapsulated within the zero trust model.
Even if they are not the house-sized mainframes from back in the day, their power is still unmatched — and their security is paramount for each organization that relies on them to perform and deliver their service.
The last time we checked, they were not sitting underground, disconnected from the rest of the IT infrastructure, and in the general vicinity of Area 51. Nope. They are connected and making most of our lives work throughout society. Let's show them the respect — and the security — they deserve.
Enjoy the conversation, if you please.
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Research Report: Zero Trust Framework Expected to Secure Mainframe
The mainframe is critical to powering businesses across industries. Despite their value, most organizations still aren’t prioritizing mainframe security, leaving their businesses open to potentially devastating repercussions from data breaches, to incorrect data ownership, to ransomware. Download the full research snapshot to review the consequences your organization could be a candidate for right now and learn more about how a Zero Trust Framework can secure the mainframe.
