Applied Software Announces the Availability of FILEGARD™, a Simple to Use, Affordable z/OS Batch Encryption Solution Utilizing Strong, Symmetric AES 128 Encryption with Support for RACF®, ACF2 and Top Secret® and Lifecycle Key Management

News provided by

Feb 06, 2012, 01:00 ET

NEW HOPE, Pa., Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- www.appliedsoftware.com -- Applied Software, Inc., a z/OS Client/Server software developer, is announcing FILEGARD™ version 5.0 currently available for beta test. FILEGARD™ is a simple to use, mainframe based encryption product for z/OS file encryption. FILEGARD™ provides centralized protection of encryption keys, and encryption support of multiple file formats and media. Using FILEGARD™ is a simple process, requiring a one-step batch job which reads the file, encrypts or decrypts the data and writes it back.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120206/PH48122 )

FILEGARD™ is comprised of a simple Batch Process, a Key Management Component and Algorithm Verification & Audit Utilities. FILEGARD™ uses a strong and symmetric encryption algorithm (AES128). No programming changes are needed. No SYSGEN or IPL is required. There are no hardware restrictions.

The product provides an effective and user-friendly interface between encryption algorithms and the IBM z/OS computer user. Further, it uses a software implementation for encryption so there is no complicated installation, set up or dependency on hardware. Just install FILEGARD™ and run a batch job. The batch interface is comprised of two programs: the Batch Encipher Program and the Batch Decipher Program; these programs perform the encryption/decryption process.

Fixed, variable, and undefined-length files with any valid logical record length (LRECL) are supported by FILEGARD™. Both sequential data sets and members of partitioned data sets may be encrypted or decrypted. A feature of the batch process is that, for the entire file, a range of columns in the file may be encrypted or decrypted without having to process all the characters in a record. For example, if a file contains sensitive data in columns 10 through 20 but the balance of each record is not sensitive, then the batch encipher program may be used to encipher only the sensitive data. This cost-effective approach permits programs to access data that is not sensitive since this data will remain as plaintext.

The security of the data protected by cryptology depends on the strength of the keys, the effect of protocols and the protection of the keys. FILEGARD™ centralized Key Management component incorporates the Applied Software DEF® Key Management function. DEF® Data Encryption Facility http://www.asisoft.com/products_DEF.html is the full function encryption product developed by Applied Software. The Key Management Component is the complete set of operations to create, maintain, and control the keys necessary to encrypt and decrypt data. The management of the keys includes generation, use and eventual destruction. Keys are:

Centralized
Automatically Generated and Encrypted
Protected by Master Key
Contained in a Key Sequential VSAM Data Set
Policy-based Management Rules Govern the Key Life Cycle (Inactive, Active, Deactivated, Destroyed and Compromised)
Protect with Robust Mainframe Security: RACF®, ACF2 and Top Secret®

Many z/OS encryption solution competitors provide or require full feature Key Management API's that require programming changes, database interfaces or hardware features. FILEGARD™ does not require any of these in order to encrypt a file.

FILEGARD™ Batch Utilities consist of a Verification Program that ensures the encryption algorithm conforms to NIST standards. Also included are optional SMF Reporting Utility and a Timing Utility.

System Requirements: