Tag Archive for: Checks

Security Checks Drive Consulting Biz for Briteskies

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June 14, 2021

Alex Woodie

With high-profile ransomware attacks becoming the norm and calls for a federal cybersecurity department gaining steam, there’s a distinct uneasiness when it comes to the security of corporate computer systems. That uptick in awareness is helping to drive business for Briteskies, the Cleveland, Ohio-based IT consultancy that has made IBM i security a cornerstone of its business.

Briteskies was founded in 2000 primarily as a JD Edwards specialist for organizations in the Great Lakes region. Over the years, the company has expanded into other niches, including Magento e-commerce systems, custom RPG development, and computer security.

The market for IBM i security services, in particular, was underserved, according to Bill Onion, managing director at Briteskies. “We identified a long time ago that infosec was growing,” Onion tells IT Jungle. “We were looking at that saying, well nobody is paying attention to the IBM i.”

The company has five employees who are dedicated to providing IBM i security services, including conducting security assessments of IBM i installations and remediating the problems it finds.

“Generally, that was kind of okay [that people were not paying attention to the IBM i], but it’s getting more and more to where it’s not,” Onion said. “There’s still a lot of folks that think that because it’s an IBM i server, it’s presumed safe. They think they don’t need to worry about that.”

Briteskies brings all sorts of tools to bear on its IBM i security engagements, most of which are with its clients in the Midwest, but some that are as far as Texas and California. It leans on automated assessment tools from HelpSystems and the new VERIFi offering from iTech Solutions that we wrote about in February.

ALLOutSecurity, which develops JD Edwards-specific auditing tools, is another Briteskies partner. It also works with local Cleveland-based backup and disaster recovery (DR) firm, UCG Technologies, to help prepare customers for ransomware attacks, as well as DXR Security, Carol Woodbury’s new security firm, on penetration testing…

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When Will Social Security Recipients Get Third Stimulus Checks?

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a model display of a home on top of an IRS envelope, U.S. stimulus check and American flag

iStock / Getty Images

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has given the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the updated information required to begin delivering stimulus checks to some 30 million federal beneficiaries still awaiting payments, Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul announced on March 25.

To date, the IRS has delivered 127 million stimulus payments worth about $325 billion during the third round of relief based primarily on information included in tax returns filed in 2019 or 2020. Among those receiving payments have been some federal beneficiaries who file tax returns. However, many low-income beneficiaries — including recipients of Social Security retirement and disability benefits, as well as recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits administered by SSA — aren’t required to file tax returns. As such, the IRS said it has been waiting for updated information from SSA on bank accounts and addresses of federal beneficiaries to ensure the stimulus payments reach eligible individuals.

AARP is urging the IRS and SSA to move more swiftly to get those checks to individuals who don’t file federal income taxes.

“We urge you to provide clear information on the IRS and other federal agency websites about when exactly these groups should expect their payments. Older Americans are counting on these payments to make ends meet. We urge you to prioritize these federal beneficiaries in both your payment distribution and communications efforts moving forward,” Bill Sweeney, AARP’s senior vice president of government affairs, wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on March 25. A similar letter from AARP went to Saul on the same day.

The updated information from SSA should help ensure that direct deposits go to correct bank accounts, and paper checks and debit cards go to correct mailing addresses. The updated information for 2021 should also reduce the number of payments sent…

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API Security Checks in the Post-Pandemic World

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The digital transformation journeys of many enterprises have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For 2020, IT resources shifted to support WFH policies with mobile and remote productivity solutions, while simultaneously managing multiple datacenter migration projects to the cloud for scale and costs. A recent Enterprise Technology Research Survey1 confirmed that WFH policies were not just a mirage in the post-pandemic world, and that the percentage of workers around the world that will permanently work from home would double.

Whether it’s supporting these post-pandemic work policies with mobile and web transactions or other popular digital transformation initiatives, like IoT, automation and microservices, APIs have played a critical role for many enterprises. Today, the average enterprise has approximately 900 applications2, and APIs play an instrumental piece in helping deliver their intended business value. APIs helped Uber disrupt the entire transportation industry, for example, with a mobile app that would consume the API of Google Maps without having to build its own mapping system. Moreover, to enable Uber and its customers to complete mobile transactions in this digital business model, APIs were leveraged to confirm transactions from the customer’s payment gateway to those of Uber and its networked drivers. Given their ability to share data and information between applications, systems, and devices, and making it possible for these things to talk with each other, APIs have, unfortunately, attracted many stakeholders beyond their intended audience of business innovators. Today’s cybercriminals, whether individuals or nation-states, have made APIs one of their popular vectors of choice.

Whether the business is traditional, like a credit bureau or big box retailer, or a member of the New Economy, cybercriminals have exploited the human errors in deploying APIs that were typically overlooked. As enterprises implemented processes and systems to meet industry compliance and global privacy rules, hackers were still able to identify gaps resulting from integration oversights or inadequate code audits due to the best-practices of third-party development or…

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