Bytware, Inc.

Archive for 2006

Bytware Newsletter: March/April 2006

Saturday, April 1st, 2006

Product News:
Bytware Unveils Enhancement-Filled StandGuard Network Security 3.0
StandGuard Network Security 3.0 is a major upgrade that once again revolutionizes iSeries security with a wealth of new and enhanced features, while maintaining the unique phased-in approach to security policy. With coverage of all exit points, expanded reporting, support for supplemental group profiles and location group profiles, and more, StandGuard Network Security 3.0 provides the best set of tools available to meet today’s evolving security challenges. Learn more about the new version…

Support News:
The Importance of Configuring Auto Bytware PTF Updates
Bytware releases Program Temporary Fixes (PTFs) and/or enhancements to the StandGuard Anti-Virus and MessengerPlus 5.60 products from time to time. We strongly recommend that you automate program updates to take advantage of the latest program features as they become available. This ensures that you always have the latest fixes and enhancements. These PTFs are implemented in the same manner as IBM PTFs.

Both StandGuard Anti-Virus and MessengerPlus 5.60 are pre-configured to download the PTFs directly from Bytware’s FTP server and apply them automatically. All you need to do is test the update process and apply an automation schedule. For StandGuard Anti-Virus 1.11, use Menu Option 11 to test the upgrade process and then “Add a Job Schedule Entry” to automate it. For StandGuard 5.20 or 5.31, use Support Menu Option 4 to configure and schedule the upgrade process. For MessengerPlus 5.60, use Support Menu Option 10 to configure and schedule the process.

Support News:
Changes to FTP Handling in StandGuard Anti-Virus
In an upcoming PTF we have improved the V5R3 and V5R2 products by removing the dependency on Java for FTP and extracting zip files. If you are using automatic updates using FTP and our defaults, then these changes will be transparent to you. However, if you are manually downloading virus definitions and/or PTFs you will need to make some changes. To see details, please select your appropriate product version:

For V5R3: http://www.bytware.com/secure/sgav/systemi/v5r3/index.html#news
For V5R2: http://www.bytware.com/secure/sgav/systemi/v5r2/index.html#news

Note: Your Support Central username and password are required to access these pages.

Spring COMMON:
Visit us at Booth 728 in Minneapolis! The Coffee (and iPod) is on us!
Once again the popular Café Bytware will be open at the upcoming COMMON conference and expo in Minneapolis. Be sure to drop by booth 728 for free Starbucks frappuccino, interactive IT adventures, and a chance to win a 60GB Apple iPod with Video and free software licenses! Plus, we’ll have plenty of resources available to help you learn about the latest security and monitoring issues and solutions! See you there!

Company News:
Bytware Grabs Highest-Scoring Gold ADDY Award
At the recent Northern Nevada ADDY Awards, hosted by the American Advertising Federation and the Advertising Association of Northern Nevada (A2N2), Bytware was awarded the highest-scoring Gold ADDY for trade publication campaign (less than four-color) for the Object Integrity Famous Quotes campaign, which ran in iSeries News UK and Spotlight magazines. To learn more about the campaign, see our online page…

Education:
Identifying Potentially Dangerous Changes to i5/OS (MC Press Online)
It’s no secret that vendors sometimes play around with OS/400 and i5/OS to achieve functionality beyond that supported by a given release level. But what is less widely understood is that this practice of “patching” programs can introduce instabilities and security exposures to your iSeries. Find out more about how this can affect your system and how to avoid it…

Education:
The Battle to Protect Sensitive Information (MC Press Online)
It’s impossible to use an Internet-connected computer today without being surrounded by threats from viruses, hackers, and malicious code, and there are many fronts in the battle to protect our sensitive information. If you haven’t yet taken protective steps, now is the time to do so-not only because it is key to overall secu rity, but also because regulations have begun demanding it. This article focuses on government and education, but provides information applicable to any industry. Read the full story…

Tech Tips:
Monitoring SAP on the iSeries with MessengerPlus
If SAP is running on the iSeries, each instance is represented as a subsystem. MessengerPlus can monitor those instances to help you ensure that jobs don’t get dropped, run within the time frame you expect, don’t eat up too much disk space, and more. Here’s how… Note: Your Support Central username and password are required to access this tip.

Using the StandGuard PRTEVT Command in a CL Program
StandGuard Network Security has a PRTEVT command that can be used to print event reports. You can run reports by typing STANDGUARD/PRTEVT, pressing F4, and filling in the current date. But wouldn’t it be nice to automate this process? You can, and here’s how… Note: Your Support Central username and password are required to access this tip.

Important Notice:
e-mail and Contacting Bytware
Due to the onslaught of Spam, we are forced from time to time to change the e-mail addresses of some of our staff. Because of this, we encourage you to contact us by phone rather than e-mail whenever possible. The address that you have for your Bytware contact could be changed, resulting in the failure of your message to reach us. We want to always provide your with the very best service possible, so to be certain that your needs do not fall victim to Spam just give us a call at 775.851.2900. You can also fax us at 775.851.2995, or use the contact forms on our website at http://www.bytware.com/contact/

CONTACTING Bytware, Inc.
For sales and product inquiries, please use our online contact form.
For technical support please fill out our online support form.
If you prefer to speak to someone by phone, please call 775.851.2900, Monday - Friday, 6 am - 5 pm PST.

© 2006 Bytware, Inc.

Bytware Unveils Enhancement-Filled StandGuard Network Security 3.0

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

RENO, Nevada—Bytware, Inc., today announced the release of the latest version of its network and exit point security solution, StandGuard Network Security 3.0. The new version is a major upgrade that once again revolutionizes iSeries security with a wealth of new and enhanced features, while maintaining the unique phased-in approach to security policy. StandGuard Network Security 3.0 expands previous exit point coverage to monitor and protect all exit points that can be used to access data or run commands, securing over 120 server functions. Users can create public and private authorities to the server, server functions, database objects, IFS objects, programs, and commands. StandGuard Network Security 3.0 supports supplemental group profiles and location group profiles.

Reporting has also been enhanced in this new release with 16 different reports to choose from, most providing many types of selection criteria.

Keeping security technology up-to-date also becomes easier with the introduction of automated PTF updates. This popular feature from Bytware’s StandGuard Anti-Virus and Messenger solutions has been added to StandGuard Network Security 3.0.

StandGuard Network Security 3.0 helps organizations address one of the most critical security issues facing us today. Recent security studies show that financial losses due to computer system breaches have increased dramatically in the past several years, with nine out of ten large businesses and government agencies acknowledging system break-ins each year resulting in losses exceeding $200,000 per organization. Two categories—theft of proprietary information and financial fraud—are the most frequent and most damaging types of security failure. According to the studies, up to forty percent of the damage originates from the Internet, but surprisingly, about two-thirds of the attacks come from inside the firewall—by trusted insiders—operating within the corporation. StandGuard Network Security 3.0 provides state-of-the-art tools for guarding against this inside threat.

StandGuard Network Security 3.0 will be available in Q2 2006. For more information about StandGuard Network Security, visit http://www.bytware.com/products/ns/

Bytware Takes Home Highest-Scoring Gold ADDY Award

Friday, March 17th, 2006

RENO, Nevada—At the recent Northern Nevada ADDY Awards, hosted by the American Advertising Federation and the Advertising Association of Northern Nevada (A2N2), Bytware was awarded the highest-scoring Gold ADDY for trade publication campaign (less than four-color) for the Object Integrity Famous Quotes campaign, which ran in iSeries News UK and Spotlight magazines. The ADDY Awards is the only three-tiered advertising competition in the United States and each year highlights the very best in advertising, marketing, and design. The Northern Nevada ADDY Awards saw nearly 600 entries this year.

Bytware’s Object Integrity Famous Quotes campaign, which took the highest-scoring Gold ADDY in its category, used slightly modified quotes from historical figures and literature to demonstrate how small changes can make a big difference. Promoting Bytware’s Object Integrity Scanning technology, part of StandGuard Anti-Virus, the ads brought attention to the effects that patched programs can have on critical system Objects, digitally-signed by IBM in i5/OS. StandGuard Anti-Virus’s Object Integrity Scanning identifies these changes and alerts iSeries managers of their presence.