Seven Educational Program Tracks

RACF Basic Administration

RACF Basic Administration provides RACF training for security administrators, auditors and systems programmers new to RACF. This track starts with a RACF overview and goes through Group, User, Dataset and General Resource profile administration. Also covered are the RACF System-Wide Options and a topic on RACF Logging and Reporting. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of this track is the hands-on lab that is available to all attendees to reinforce the concepts presented during the breakout sessions. The track is a basic RACF course presented Tuesday morning through Thursday afternoon. All sessions, excluding hands-on labs must be completed to receive a Certificate of Achievement.

RACF Advanced Administration

This track provides training for security administrators with a working knowledge of RACF. Topics are presented on critical z/OS® functions and interfaces with components such as CICS®, DB2®, JES, and SDSF, as well as UNIX System Services. RACF Advanced Administration provides the knowledge necessary to ensure that these critical applications and subsystems are secured by RACF.

Advanced z/OS Security Techniques

This track focuses on the hottest topics necessary for z/OS® "techies" to survive in the rapidly changing world of security. With so many emerging technical issues being addressed in organizations today, many new sessions regarding the latest enhancements to the z/OS Security Server have been added. The IBM® developers who design and write the code will present many of the sessions. If you are a technician, systems programmer, systems analyst or consultant, you won’t want to miss these exciting technical classes.

How to Meet Compliance, Audit, Regulations and Standards

Cyber security compliance, audits, standards and regulations impact everyone. Does your company do background checks or drug testing? Do they provide health insurance or medical spending accounts? Do you accept credit card payments? Does your company have accounts payable/accounts receivable? Are you audited by the government? Do federal agencies outsource to you? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your company is subject to one or more of the myriad government regulations.

Information security professionals face numerous challenges to meet FISMA, HIPAA, HITECH, SOX, the Cyber Security Enhancement Act and to pass audits. How do you comply? What do you need to know? Do you need to evaluate and adjust your information security management system (ISMS)? Do you know how to develop proactive techniques to anticipate and/or respond to the impacts of an ever-changing business landscape and evolving customer, technology, legal, and regulatory requirements?

Does your z/OS system meet the minimum required configuration controls? Do you conduct regular z/OS System and RACF audits? Are you a third party provider for a federal agency?  If you answered "yes", you will want to attend the sessions which provide a comprehensive review of the mainframe configuration controls published by NIST and DHS in the NCP (National Checklist Program), and highlight use of standards and configuration controls to support compliance with regulations such as FISMA and HIPAA.

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, this track is for you. Learn the numerous security standards and their relevance to all computing environments.

Emerging Technologies & New Techniques

The Information Security world today is very dynamic, even if you primarily work in a mainframe environment. Smart devices, social networks, virtualization, cloud computing, malware and regulations are just a few areas impacting seasoned security professionals everywhere. Is there ever a chance to sit back and relax? This track is designed to educate you in areas that you have heard about and yet may be new to you, or in which you just want to become more familiar with.

Vanguard Power Tools for Security

Are you leveraging all the power of your Vanguard software products to save time and money? Make the most of your investment by utilizing them to the "nth" degree. Vanguard's professional instructors lead you through the concepts to maximize your time and effort in performing the duties of a RACF security professional, demonstrating the un-leveraged powers of each product. If you use any of the Vanguard products, you will find sessions of interest to you in this track.

CA Security Track (CAS)

This track provides training for security administrators, auditors or compliance personnel with the knowledge you need about the CA Security and Compliance Solutions. Topics include how-to sessions on CA Auditor for z/OS, securing DB2, leveraging your mainframe security databases in the distributed world as well as CA Mainframe Chorus for Security and Compliance Management and our latest products updates and roadmap for the CA Mainframe Security Solutions.