Rui Miguel Feio

The RACF Started Task definition table ICHRIN03

30th August 2016 Rui Miguel Feio

Before the introduction of the RACF STARTED class, table ICHRIN03 was the way RACF had to control started tasks. However, and contrary to what we may believe, ICHRIN03 still plays an important role. ICHRIN03 is still used when: No STARTED class profile covering a resource exists A STARTED class profile […]

Unix System Services (USS) and Access Control Lists (ACL) using RACF

24th August 2016 Rui Miguel Feio

In z/OS Unix System Services (USS), Access Control Lists (ACLs) are used in conjunction with the normal permission bits, allowing access control for files and directories by individual UIDs and GIDs. These are known as extended Access Control Lists and require RACF class FSSEC to be active. Although controlled by […]

Watch hackers break into the US power grid

22nd August 2016 Rui Miguel Feio

A power company in the Midwest (USA) hired a group of white hat hackers to test its defenses. This 15 minute video shows how much work needs to be done to (properly) secure not only this company, but many other companies around the world from hackers. * A Tech Insider […]

Mainframe, the most secure IT platform in the world?

26th July 2016 Rui Miguel Feio

When I first started working in mainframe back in the 1990s, I was told that the mainframe was the most secure platform in the world and that it was impossible to hack it. For many years I thought this was true. Now in 2016, and after working in IT security […]

How to execute MVS or JES2 commands in Batch

20th July 2016 Rui Miguel Feio

There are times where you may need to execute MVS or JES2 commands in batch using a JCL job. In this article I will show you 3 different ways of doing this. The examples below show the JCL required to execute the MVS command D A,L and the JES2 command […]