Page 112 - Cyber Defense eMagazine January 2024

It’s Time to End the Myth of Untouchable

Mainframe Security.

By Al Saurette, CEO, MainTegrity,

Most large organizations, including 70% of Fortune 500 companies, rely extensively on mainframes for
managing their business and IT infrastructure.

However, despite the significant role mainframes play, the conversation of how to best secure
mainframes security does gets relatively little attention. Considering today’s cyberthreat landscape
mainframes have never been more vulnerable to attacks. Cyberattackers are becoming bolder, stronger
and more innovative by the day.

The timing couldn’t be worse. A large cohort of senior, experienced security professionals are set to retire
in the coming years, further exacerbating the ongoing skills shortage and exerting more pressure on
remaining professionals. As the complexity of threats increases, their jobs become tougher. Short-staffed
security teams will tend to prioritize their time and mobilize their efforts to reactively address the most
obvious issues, which often means mainframe security falls to the bottom of the priority list.

It is critical for mainframe security to re-enter the cybersecurity conversation, and that starts with doing
away with commonly held misconceptions. First is the mistaken belief that due to their mature or

Cyber Defense eMagazine – January 2024 Edition 112
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