It’s been a remarkably mild winter so far here in Minnesota and we’ve seen the cancellation of several winter events due to the lack of snow and ice. The only commercial interests not feeling the pinch are those with capabilities to make their own snow. But last week, we finally got a cold (pun intended!) dose of reality in the Upper Midwest. Temperatures dipped down into the negatives, several inches of snow and freezing rain fell, and Minnesota experienced a day with more than 600 traffic accidents!

Fortunately, we have efficient heating systems here and have been heads down working on an upcoming product announcement, as well as a campaign about our free Compliance Assessment service. I’ve been squaring off with icy roads while out and about performing a number of deep-dive assessment contracts—I’m still amazed how many folks don’t know that we can help with general IBM i security services.

Last week, Help/Systems closed the books on a record 2011, and embarked on the journey to an even bigger goal for 2012. We’ve been making numerous organizational expansions to facilitate the next stage in our corporate growth. I’ve joined a new Technical Services team that consists of solutions experts across our various lines of business. As an ISO-certified software development company, we’re used to standardized quality procedures, but now we’re identifying ways to leverage the multitude of years of experience held by the various product evangelists for the common good. It’s a very exciting time to be part of Help/Systems and to see the investment in our strategic growth.

On the security front, if you’ve never taken proactive steps to secure your IFS, you might want to keep an eye on your inbox for an upcoming edition of PowerNews. I’ve put together information on common IFS vulnerabilities, along with some basic steps that you can follow to help control access. It’s probably one of the most neglected areas of configuration and one of the most commonly requested areas for help.

Some recent newsworthy security items have included the arrest of a programmer at the Federal Reserve on charges of stealing software used by the Department of Treasury, and a breach at online retailer zappos.com that could affect 24 million customers. Fortunately, it appears that Zappos had their own critical data protected with encryption, but customer passwords might have been exposed. The primary concern now is that customers who use common passwords for other websites (such as personal banking and investment websites) will become victims of subsequent crimes. I’d say it sounds like a good time to check your own vulnerabilities.

If you’d like information on the solution modules that comprise the PowerTech portfolio, please contact me at robin.tatam@powertech.com.

Cheers!

- rt

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Other, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.