Re: Ransomware on Power

Fantastic list! Do all of those things.

Adding to that more frequency in your backups is important and I'm not talking replication either be that MIMIX, PowerHA, or even Db2Mirror for i! Remember that any of those replication technologies simply would replicate the encrypted object to the backup system some just would do that faster than others!!

Now you could also do journaling and this would be a good thing anyway for a number of reasons including: "I sell disk. :-) "

Reason would be that in an emergency keeping your feathers numbered is a prime requirement. Recover the system prior to the disaster and then apply the journal receivers up to the point where the problem began. This may be one of the best ways to recover to a known point. Of course one would need to keep all your journal receivers, preferably locally on tape or VTL. As always, you cannot recover from something you do not have.

One of my customers has PowerHA and uses that to do a flashcopy and then backs up the flash copy. They do this flashcopy at their backup site so no performance impact whatever to production.

More better still even, the first of these flash copies backs up everything but through the day they refresh the flashcopy and back up their IFS files. Currently they are getting 6 flash copies per day which is giving them 6 recovery points should ransomware or other 'bad things' affect their IFS. They have 'A LOT' in the IFS.

Another thought was passed to me by a rather short woman who is very tall in security who suggested : "So you know those exit points meant to be used for virus scanning? Yeah those don't have to be restricted to only that. Perhaps you set up a process that every time an IFS object is placed or changed that exit point saves a copy of it somewhere." Somewhere could be an image catalogue or a constantly mounted tape in a VTL or let your brain wander. This way you get backup copies 'el quicko' the instant any IFS object changes.

And to the person who claims that such things cannot happen to IBM i. NotSoFast Rabbit. Just because a traditional 'virus' is less likely (some say impossible) on IBM i does NOT mean that such a program could not be written and placed by an employee, contractor, or software vendor. Yes I hear you saying that "NO Larry, you CANNOT simply encrypt PAYMAST in PRLIB because it's an object oriented system and that simply cannot be done." Correct with that, but I COULD write a simple enough program that rolls through PAYMAST and encrypts key data fields in there or perhaps I'm silly, and I write the program with a fixed record length and simply encrypt the entire buffer. Oh sure lots of things will break but I rather don't care because my goal is to disrupt your business at that point isn't it? And I don't necessarily have to encrypt, maybe I just multiply every number by a random and rotate text fields by a random number of characters. Less things bomb that way but the data is just as FOOBAR isn't it? And yeah replication made the backup server look just as bad nearly instantly. And since most of you have PUBLIC *USE as the default on nearly every table on the system this program could probably be run by the janitor.

- L

On 1/19/2021 2:09 PM, Steve Pitcher wrote:

Hi Larry,

Ideal protection against ransomware (or any other malware) entails:

1. Only share what you must through NetServer. Share not needed? Delete it.
2. Shares you create must be protected by proper object authority on the underlying directories
3. Do not share the root, /QIBM, /QOpenSys
4. Do not use Guest NetServer profiles
5. Reduce *ALLOBJ to the bare minimum

Everything else is reactive. Be proactive. This is risk reduction, plain and simple.


Steve Pitcher

iTech Solutions Group, LLC

p: (203) 744-7854 Ext. 176 | m: (902) 301-0810
www.itechsol.com | www.iInTheCloud.com




-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ketzes, Larry
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 2:46 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Ransomware on Power

Hello all,
I'd like to know what strategy folks are using for ransomware on Power. I think IBM has a product available if you are using IBM storage. Any other alternatives people are using?

Thanks, Larry

Larry Ketzes | Director, Midrange Engineering | Foundational Engineering | MetLife

101 MetLife Way, Cary, NC 27513 | T. 919-907-5229 | M. 302-382-1316 | lketzes@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:lketzes@xxxxxxxxxxx>


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