Townsend Security Data Privacy Blog

VMware users can now protect VM Images and vSAN with Alliance Key Manager, Townsend Security’s FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption key manager.

Townsend Security is excited to announce that its new version of Alliance Key Manager fully supports VMware vSphere encryption for both VMware virtual machines (VMs) and for VMware Virtual Disk (vDisk). VMware users have been using Alliance Key Manager to protect data in application databases and applications to meet PCI DSS, GDPR, HIPAA compliance as well as other data privacy regulations. Now VMware users can use the same Alliance Key Manager solution with vSphere to protect virtual machines and virtual disks. Townsend Security is a VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) and Alliance Key Manager for VMware has achieved VMware Ready status.  

“Our customers have been using Alliance Key Manager to protect data in Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB and other environments for many years. Now VMware users can have confidence that Alliance Key Manager can also protect VMware virtual machines and virtual disk to achieve the highest level of data-at-rest protection,” said Patrick Townsend, CEO of Townsend Security. “VMware users are looking for certified solutions that support their complex Windows and Linux environments without the need to deploy additional hardware-based HSMs. We are happy to announce this extension of our key management solution to help VMware vSphere users achieve a high level of data protection.”

VMware users are looking for affordable solutions that provably meet compliance regulations and which fit their budget and deployment goals. Alliance Key Manager meets this goal by providing NIST FIPS 140-2 compliance, PCI-DSS certification, and Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) compliance out of the box. Existing Alliance Key Manager customers can upgrade at no cost to extend their data protection compliance requirements to vSphere. New customers can deploy Alliance Key Manager without the fear of increased, unplanned licensing costs in the future.

In addition to PCI DSS, compliance regulations such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the HIPAA data security regulation, and many other data protection regulations, require the encryption of data at rest. Alliance Key Manager combined with vSphere encryption are the protection methods  to help you meet these regulatory requirements. “Don’t be fooled by vague language in the GDPR regulation. You must act to protect sensitive information of individuals in order to meet this regulatory requirement. You should act now to protect your organization,” said Townsend.

Alliance Key Manager for VMware is available for a free 30-day evaluation.

IBM i (iSeries, AS/400) users can now meet PCI security recommendations for multi-factor authentication with a mobile-based solution.

Today Townsend Security announced a major enhancement to Alliance Two Factor Authentication for IBM i to fully support the new Payment Card Industry (PCI) recommendations for multi-factor authentication with Authy. Authy (A Twilio company) is one of the most popular mobile-based authentication solutions and is in wide use to protect web credentials.

Townsend Security’s support for Authy means that IBM i (iSeries, AS/400) users can now deploy a popular and low-cost two factor authentication product without the expense of back-end hardware servers and hardware tokens. The Authy application installs on your mobile device or in your browser and provides Time-based One Time Passwords (PIN codes) on demand. Since Authy TOTP codes do not require a mobile network connection or an Internet connection, they are immune from gaps in connectivity to the network. Authentication on the IBM i platform simply requires opening the Authy application on your phone, viewing the one time code, and entering it on your IBM i signon screen. Alliance Two Factor Authentication then verifies the code with the Authy service and allows access to the IBM i platform.

Alliance Two Factor Authentication also now implements multi-factor authentication that is compliant with the new PCI guidance which requires that a user enter a user ID and password (something they know) at the same time that they enter their one time code generated by Authy on the mobile device (something you have). The Townsend Security solution implements a secondary user ID and password to use with Authy authentication to meet this level of compliance. A failed authentication on the IBM i server never discloses whether the user ID and password were invalid, or whether the one time code was invalid. This logic prevents the disclosure of important credential information that is common in Two Step Verification. An additional benefit to using the Authy application is that recovery from the loss of a mobile phone is simple and straightforward.

Because Authy uses a secure, time-based one time code and does not use SMS text delivery, it is secure and meets security best practices for authentication. Townsend Security’s Alliance Two Factor Authentication solution continues to support SMS text delivery of one time codes, but the new Authy facility is the default for new installations.

“IBM i users need an affordable two factor authentication solution that removes the expense and headaches of hardware-based solutions. By using your mobile phone for the generation of one time codes, you never have to worry about administering a large number of hardware tokens,” said Patrick Townsend, CEO of Townsend Security “The Authy service is secure, extremely affordable, easy to administer, and highly performant. IBM i customers can install Alliance Two Factor Authentication in a few minutes, provision an Authy account on their web site, and be using two factor authentication very quickly. It’s a fast path to PCI compliance and better security.”

You can find the PCI guidance document here.

Alliance Two Factor Authentication is licensed on a per logical partition (LPAR) basis, with perpetual and subscription licensing options available. Existing Alliance Two Factor Authentication customers on a current maintenance contract can upgrade to the new version at no charge.

Townsend Security, a MongoDB Technology Partner, achieves MongoDB Enterprise Certification for Alliance Key Manager.

Today Townsend Security, a leading authority in data privacy solutions, and MongoDB, the database for modern applications, today announced Alliance Key Manager has certified against MongoDB Enterprise.

MongoDB Enterprise simplifies data protection by providing native encryption of data at rest. When coupled with Townsend Security’s flagship encryption key management solution, Alliance Key Manager, meeting compliance (PCI DSS, HIPAA, etc.) and security standards is even easier and more affordable for large as well as small organizations.      

By centralizing the secure storage of encryption keys and governance with a FIPS 140-2 compliant solution, MongoDB users can easily generate a master encryption key and begin encrypting database keys using native command line operations with Alliance Key Manager.

“Alliance Key Manager for MongoDB gives organizations control of key management in a convenient and fast deployment option. With this joint solution it is simple for customers to encrypt their data in MongoDB Enterprise,” said Davi Ottenheimer, Product Security, MongoDB.

Encryption and key management have become a critical aspect of security and compliance management. Protecting encryption keys mitigates the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks, as well as protects an organization’s brand, reputation and credibility. Alliance Key Manager addresses these needs by helping enterprises reduce risk, support business continuity, and demonstrate compliance with regulations like PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, etc. 

“In the wake of some of the largest data breaches ever, data security is a top concern for businesses large and small. MongoDB has made it easier than ever for enterprises to secure private data with encryption and key management,” said Patrick Townsend, Founder & CEO, Townsend Security. “With Alliance Key Manager for MongoDB, MongoDB Enterprise customers have access to cost-effective, simplified encryption key management.”

Alliance Key Manager supports seamless migration and hybrid implementations, using the same FIPS 140-2 compliant technology. MongoDB users can deploy Alliance Key Manager as a hardware security module (HSM), VMware instance, or cloud-native Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 instance or Microsoft Azure virtual machine. Additionally, Alliance Key Manager supports hybrid and cross-cloud deployments. The solution is available for a free 30-day evaluation.

With mobile-based two factor authentication, Townsend Security offers customers an additional control to protect core security solutions from un-authorized access due to compromised credentials.

Today Townsend Security announces that its flagship Alliance Two Factor Authentication solution for the IBM i (AS/400, iSeries) has been enhanced to support SMS text delivery using the Twilio global cloud communications platform. Twilio’s self-service SMS text delivery platform makes it easy and affordable for customers to provision accounts under a SaaS model. IBM i customers only pay for what they use and can easily expand their use of the service over time.

“IBM i customers want security solutions that are affordable, easy to install, and easy to configure and administer. Our Alliance Two Factor Authentication solution requires no hardware or back-end internal infrastructure to deploy,” said Patrick Townsend, CEO of Townsend Security.

Two factor authentication is now a critical security control that every IBM i customer should be using to control access by highly privileged users. Customers can install Alliance Two Factor Authentication, provision the Twilio service online, and start using two factor authentication very quickly. The software will even identify your privileged users and help immediately enforce two factor authentication. The solution can be downloaded from www.townsendsecurity.com and includes a free 30-day evaluation.

“Many compliance regulations such as the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and others require or strongly recommend the use of two factor authentication (also called multi-factor authentication) to secure all non-console administrative access and all remote access regardless of privileges to core servers. A single IBM i server is often host to a large number of sensitive applications. It is common that IBM i customers run human resources, CRM, ERP and other applications on a small number of IBM i servers that then become a target for cyber criminals. The use of two factor authentication to protect highly privileged users is a security best practice. And it is now very easy to implement,” continued Townsend.

In addition to protecting the logins of highly privileged users, the Alliance Two Factor Authentication product also exposes a command interface to the Twilio SMS text service. This means that IBM i customers can now integrate SMS text authentication directly into their own applications. Need an out-of-band authentication for that multi-million dollar financial transaction? You can now do that directly from your business applications with the Send Text Message with Twilio (SNDTXTTWI) command and application program interfaces (APIs).

In addition to user authentication the new SMS text application support can be used for notification of significant application events. Your business applications can send a message when inventory runs low at a distribution center, when a business process has been delayed, or for any other critical business process. You can even embed links into the text messages to help users quickly solve problems and accomplish critical tasks.

Alliance Two Factor Authentication is licensed on a per logical partition (LPAR) basis, with perpetual and subscription licensing options available. Existing Alliance Two Factor Authentication customers on a current maintenance contract can upgrade to the new version at no charge.

Alliance LogAgent for IBM i now instantly records critical system events and integrates line-of-business applications with ServiceNow, the leading cloud-based solution for IT systems to instantly record critical system events.

Townsend Security today announced support for integration of IBM i servers and applications with ServiceNow, the leading cloud-based solution for IT system support problem tracking and resolution. Leveraging the ServiceNow REST web interface, Townsend Security’s Alliance LogAgent solution can now instantly record critical system events as ServiceNow Incident reports. Additionally, Alliance LogAgent also exposes an API command to allow IBM i customers the ability to integrate line-of-business applications with ServiceNow. When business applications encounter critical events or errors, these can be immediately visible to the IT administrative and security teams for rapid response and resolution.

“IBM i customers want to leverage the best of the new generation cloud-based service offerings. This new release of Alliance LogAgent gives them that ability right out of the box. Existing ServiceNow customers have all they need to record critical incidents in real time. IBM i users who are not currently ServiceNow customers can rapidly subscribe to ServiceNow and start enjoying the benefits of this leading IT Systems Service Management (ITSSM) solution,” said Patrick Townsend, CEO of Townsend Security.

“The power and stability of the IBM i system can integrate with the best of the cloud-based ITSSM solutions. It’s an easy win for IBM i customers, and those with existing system logging solutions will be happy to know that Alliance LogAgent can co-exist with existing technology, or IBM i customers can take advantage of our competitive upgrade program,” continued Townsend.

New ServiceNow features in Alliance LogAgent include:

Privileged User Access
Monitoring administrative access to IBM i servers is a critical compliance and security best practice. Alliance LogAgent can identify in real-time the privilege level of a user signing on to the system and report it to ServiceNow and to any SIEM solution. Alliance LogAgent is unique in its ability to dynamically identify the true privilege level of a user by examining the native authority of the user as well as authorities inherited from Group and Supplemental profiles. Cyber criminals often use privilege escalation as a starting point in an attack. Alliance LogAgent can now identify privileged user logons and raise a ServiceNow support incident.

User Profile Disabled
A common labor-intensive task for IT administrators is managing user accounts that are disabled due to an excessive number of password failures, or which are disabled due to a brute force attack. Alliance LogAgent will now automatically identify disabled user profiles in real-time and create a ServiceNow incident report. This gives the IBM system and security administrator rapid visibility and resolution for disabled profiles. Additional system security is provided by an out-of-band notification via ServiceNow of a potential attack in progress.

File or Object Change
An attacker often modifies a program or file on the IBM i server as a part of compromising sensitive data. For example, an attacker might modify the IBM i web server configuration file to direct users to malware on infected sites. IBM i customers can now identify both library and IFS objects for monitoring by Alliance LogAgent with reporting directly to ServiceNow. Early detection of modified programs and files can help an IBM i customer avoid a data breach.

Application Integration with ServiceNow
IBM i developers can now easily integrate business applications and processes with ServiceNow through a new command named Create ServiceNow Incident (CRTSVNINC). By embedding this command into user applications the IBM i developer can provide a wide set of incident creation capabilities. This new command builds on the ServiceNow REST interface without requiring complex communications or API logic in the business application. Using the ServiceNow command does not require the SIEM integration components of Alliance LogAgent. IBM i customers can use just the ServiceNow integration component, or combine its use with Alliance LogAgent SIEM integration.

Alliance LogAgent is licensed on a Logical Partition (LPAR) basis. Both perpetual and subscription licenses are available. Volume discounts are available. Additional charges apply to the ServiceNow application. Alliance LogAgent can be downloaded from the Townsend Security website for a free 30-day trial of the fully functional solution. ServiceNow integration requires a subscription license from ServiceNow. Trial subscriptions are available from their website at http://servicenow.com.

By protecting data with encryption and key management solutions from Townsend Security, businesses can easily meet compliance requirements.

Townsend Security, a leading provider of encryption and key management solutions, today announced that Alliance Key Manager can help businesses in the finance industry meet new encryption requirements, including those found in the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) cybersecurity regulation and the European Union General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), in addition to existing Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

By protecting nonpublic personal information (NPI) and personally identifiable information (PII) with NIST-compliant AES encryption and FIPS 140-2 key management found in Townsend Security’s Alliance Key Manager, businesses can protect private information including: customer financial records, social security number, income, and account numbers. Organizations that experience a data breach where un-encrypted data is lost can suffer fines reaching into the millions of dollars, as well as face indirect costs like brand damage and customer loss.

Fortunately, encryption and key management has gotten tremendously easier to deploy and is within reach of the most modest budgets. Customers worldwide have turned to Alliance Key Manager because it enables them to easily meet the most stringent requirements found in GLBA, PCI DSS, and HIPAA. The solution has been validated to meet PCI DSS in VMware, and is also available as a hardware security module (HSM) and in the cloud (AWS, Azure, vCloud).

“The finance industry is increasingly being held accountable for the security, confidentiality and integrity of non-public customer information,” said Patrick Townsend, founder and CEO, of Townsend Security. “Encryption, along with key management, is the best way to ensure that private information remains private – even in the event of a breach.”

New features include full reporting of administrative users, including authority the user adopts through Group Profiles and Supplemental Group Profiles.

Townsend Security today announced a significant update to its existing Alliance LogAgent for IBM i (AS/400, iSeries) solution, allowing full reporting of administrative users, which includes authority the user adopts through Group Profiles and Supplemental Group Profiles. Alliance LogAgent is a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) integration solution that collects, formats, and transmits security information in real-time to any SIEM or log collection server.

When the new configuration options are enabled, Alliance LogAgent will tag all significant security events as performed by the administrative level user. This enhancement will help security administrators easily identify which users have elevated privileges and enable SIEM solutions to quickly identify and alert on operations. In addition to the new administrative user reporting, Alliance LogAgent now provides an easy-to-use local assessment report that identifies privileged users. This will reduce the overhead of inspecting and adjusting privileges of IBM i users. 

Alliance LogAgent is compatible with all SIEM solutions that accept Syslog messages, IBM QRadar Log Event Extended Format (LEEF), or the HP ArcSight Common Event Format (CEF). The new administrative field reporting will make it easy for SIEM administrators to create dashboards, compliance reports, and alerts based on reported fields. When an administrator privileges are detected Alliance LogAgent adds the following field to the security message:

            admin_user=yes

For IBM QRadar the new field is:

            adminUser=yes

By providing a normalized field in the security events sent to the SIEM monitoring platform, the SIEM’s query and forensic tools can be used more effectively.

“Many IBM i customers have struggled with identifying who on their system has elevated privileges. It is crucial to identify and strictly control these users as cyber criminals often use privilege escalation to enable the exfiltration of sensitive data,” said Patrick Townsend, CEO of Townsend Security. “On first look an IBM i account may appear to have normal user privileges, but may in fact inherit higher privileges through a Group Profile or Supplemental Group Profile. Alliance LogAgent now detects these elevated privileges in real time, and provides the security administrator with an easy-to-use report to identify the source of elevated privileges. We think this is a crucial enhancement that will help IBM i customers better secure their platforms.”

Alliance LogAgent is in use with a wide variety of SIEM solutions including LogRhythm, SecureWorks, NTT Solutionary, IBM QRadar, Alert Logic, AlienVault, McAfee SIEM, Splunk, SolarWinds, and many others. In addition to collecting the IBM i security audit journal information Alliance LogAgent collects system history messages, operator messages, exit point information, system statistics, and a variety of open source application logs in Unix/Linux format.

The solution is licensed on a per logical partition (LPAR) basis, with perpetual and subscription licensing options available. Existing Alliance LogAgent customers on a current maintenance contract can upgrade to the new version at no charge.