Consul zSecure Suite Expands Database Audit Functions Required for Monitoring Privileged Users for Compliance; New Release Includes DB2 Audit Trail Analysis, Additional Password Controls and Enhanced Reporting for IBM's zSeries(R) eServer.

HERNDON, Va. -- Consul risk management, the authority in security audit and compliance, today announced the availability of the Consul zSecure Suite 1.7 to support the newest interoperability enhancements to RACF (IBM's Resource Access Control Facility) in z/OS 1.7. New features, including DB2 audit trail analysis, password controls and enhanced reporting, help large distributed environments establish proper controls over user activity, including privileged user behavior. As a result zSecure Suite plays a key role in risk management and compliance with government regulations and corporate policies.

In his report entitled, "External Security Managers for IBM z/OS: Perspective," Gartner Analyst Ant Allan included Consul zSecure Suite as a technology leader for the RACF administration and related tools category. Allan stated, "Without an external security manager, an organization would struggle to provide the necessary access control services for its mainframes...It provides a very rich range of access-control services, managing user identities and managing and enforcing users' access rights across multiple applications on z/OS images."

"Organizations must continuously monitor the people, processes, systems and information within their environment to maintain ongoing compliance. A comprehensive approach to security, that includes such strategic tools as Consul zSecure, helps address risk management and satisfy IT audits. Consul's zSecure version 1.7 enhancements demonstrate our commitment to customers as they strive to implement higher levels of security, control and compliance," said Rob van Hoboken, security leader and a founder of Consul. "With this release Consul customers can safely migrate to z/OS 1.7 and apply IBM's newest security enhancements."

Generally available in March, Consul zSecure version 1.7 has extended authorization and delegation capabilities to support z/OS's mixed case password management and minimum password change interval functions, as well as new capabilities that enable administrators to provide privileges to users on a temporary basis and automatically revoke those privileges at a pre-determined time period. These features enable stronger enforcement of existing security policies and reduce the organization's risk.

Broader audit support for DB2 aligns with IBM's recommendation to externalize access controls from the database to a security manager such as RACF. Support for CA-ACF2 version 8 allows users to leverage zSecure's capabilities on multiple security management frameworks. In zSecure version 1.7 Consul expanded the information that administrators can access from the SMF records that DB2 generates. The tool also provides more detailed reporting that meets regulatory and managerial requirements, including reporting on RACF application segments.

About Consul risk management, Inc.

Founded in 1986, Consul risk management is an authority in security audit and compliance. Consul provides policy-based user monitoring solutions to track, report on and investigate non-compliant behavior, such as unauthorized activity by administrators and other privileged users. The Consul InSight(TM) Suite automates the process of enterprise-wide log collection, privileged user monitoring, compliance reporting and behavioral forensics.

More than 350 customers around the world rely on Consul to accelerate their security audit and compliance efforts, including AEGON Canada, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Fidelity Financial Services, Ford, Kroger, The New York Times, Office Depot, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Wachovia and government agencies. Consul has offices in the United States and the Netherlands, and 25 partners worldwide, including BMC Software. For additional information about Consul and its products, services and partners please call +1 800.258.5077 or +31 15.251.3333 (Worldwide), or visit www.consul.com.

Consul zSecure Suite and Consul InSight Suite are trademarks of Consul risk management, Inc.