With SkyView Policy Minder for AIX, IT professionals can seamlessly manage PCI data on IBM servers.

Editor's Note: This article is a review of a Webcast about SkyView Policy Minder, available free at the MC Press Webcast Center.

Monitoring systems that must be compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) can be done more efficiently with the help of SkyView's Policy Minder for AIX for IBM i and i5/OS. In the Webcast, Carol Woodbury, president and CTO of SkyView Partners, discusses the 12 sections of the AIX PCI DSS and explains how Policy Minder helps IT professionals set requirements and run reports to ensure standards are met.

Specifically, Woodbury discusses how Policy Minder manages password requirements, user account settings, and other data in the context of the PCI DSS. "Policy Minder can help manage those settings and produce reports and regular checks to ensure you are in perpetual compliance with the standard," Woodbury says.

SkyView Policy Minder automates security policy compliance and delivers security administration functionality to reduce hours spent on analysis required for compliance, Woodbury said. In the Webcast, she walks viewers through such capabilities, including showing screenshots that demonstrate how users can automatically check compliance for user profiles, directories, authorization lists, and more.

In addition, Woodbury shows how to use the system to manage multiple servers by adding one to the interface. She also demonstrates the steps needed to document security implementation by using templates, which allow users to print reports for auditors by selecting a box and clicking "Policy Report." 

Viewers also will learn how the system runs a compliance check through a "Fix-It" feature. The feature lets users return a system's security configuration to match security policy requirements. If something is out of compliance, it can be restored to compliance automatically.

"That check takes policy settings or configuration and compares it to the value of what is on AIX server," Woodbury said. "What doesn't match is out of compliance. If out of compliance, you'll have the option to run Fix-It, which will change the server setting to match the policy."

Mary Rose Roberts is a professional journalist and editor for the business-to-business press, with an emphasis on wireless technologies and public safety. She also is the editor of NextGenGreen, a blog with tips on how to reuse, recycle, and renew through eco-conscious living.