The monitoring of activity of users is as important factor in a complex security system as are the mechanisms of its functioning. Therefore, as for RACF (Resource Access Control Facility), activity monitoring is an efficient way to gather the data on the users’ activity, their access patterns and potential security threats. Thus, the identification of activities of users will allow enhancing the security of an organization, as well as avoiding possible threats and violations of the existing regulations.
Ignoring user activities is vital if the system is to be safeguarded, access rights are to be controlled, and any signs of an insider threat are to be identified. Taking into consideration the increased threat of data leakage and cyber attacks in the current IT environment, the monitoring of users’ activity is critical in order to prevent potential threats and to protect the enterprise resources.
Analyzing RACF Access Attempts
RACF is one of the strong access control systems used in organizations to offer required access control to the users for different resources. It is important to examine the access attempts in RACF and to realize that it is beneficial to pay attention to the user activity and define the potential threats and act in case of the security threat.
There is also another type of usage in RACF that includes access attempts which can be grouped into the following; successful logins, login failures, and violations. The knowledge of these access patterns can be useful in comprehending the users’ behaviors, security breaches and threats, and the vulnerable sections of the system that require more protection.
Strategies for Supervising Normal User Interactions
In an effort to enhance the measures of control over activity in RACF, the following methods and means can be used. Some of the common approaches include:
- Audit Logging: It allows for recording of huge audit records in RACF where all the activities done by the users, the resources utilized by the users and more to that, the security violations that occur are well recorded.
- Real-time Monitoring: Applying the solutions which would be able to watch the users’ actions in real time and give the alarms if they notice some signs of possible malicious actions of users, for example, numerous logins, or attempts to access the restricted resources.
- Reporting and Analytics: Providing as much detail as possible as well as looking for patterns, trends and possible security problems that may be inherent in the data generated by user activity and making this data available for analysis.
- User Behavior Profiling: The ability to state the first patterns of the user behaviors or models and the opportunity to make sure that certain behavior is not suitable and can be viewed as illicit or malicious.
- Integration with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: In order to combine the other security activities I will use the SIEM tools for analyzing the RACF information and compare the details about the user activity with the other activities which will provide me with the better understanding of the security environment.
Advantages of Monitoring User Activity in RACF
Implementing a robust user activity monitoring strategy in RACF can provide numerous benefits to your organization:
- Enhanced Security: In addition, users’ activity analysis is useful for the assessment of the possible security threats that may include an external threat such as hacking, leakage of data, or an internal threat.
- Improved Compliance: Given the fact that the user activity auditing offers detailed access and control records, it can be valuable in contexts of compliance with the stipulations and regulations of a firm or an industry like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or SOX.
- Increased Visibility: In essence, there is a need to track all the activities of the users since this would help in evaluating their behavior, access and use of resources that would help in the decision making process of security.
- Streamlined Investigations: In case of any security breach, UAM information can be handy in producing evidence and in managing security breaches with relative ease.
- Proactive Risk Mitigation: It is important to recognize a threat or a weakness in security or any risky user behavior to mitigate threats and enhance security.
Applying User Activity Monitoring in RACF
To implement effective user activity monitoring in RACF, consider the following steps:The following are the recommended methods of monitoring the user activity in RACF:
Define Monitoring Objectives: Make sure that you have clear understanding of what the organization wants to protect, what compliance the organization has to meet and activities of the users that need to be controlled.
Configure Audit Logging: It is also crucial that all audit records are retained by RACF especially on the successful and unsuccessful access attempts, the resources accessed, and security incidences.
Establish Monitoring Processes: Find out how the logs are to be checked often, how to identify unusual activities or security breaches, and how to address the issue.
Leverage Reporting and Analytics: It is advisable to incorporate RACF reporting features and link it to SIEM for obtaining the detailed reports on the data, as well as the graphical representation of the collected user activity data for further analysis.
Continuously Refine and Improve: Ensure that you have implemented a way of conducting a periodic evaluation of the efficiency of the strategy of monitoring the users’ activity in response to new threats, organizational needs, and advancements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is essential to pay attention to the user actions in RACF in order to enhance the protection of the existing systems. Such means include increasing security compliance, visibility, investigations, and risk in organizations by closely monitoring and supervising users.
If you need your organization security raised and your organization to become more noticeable, then, please, feel free to use our free trial of user activity monitoring solution for RACF. Our broad and comprehensive system can provide the best class Analytics, monitoring and alerting, and reporting services to protect from security threats and compliance breach.
