RACF User Groups

RACF User Groups (RUGs) are grass-roots gatherings of individuals who are RACF practitioners that live and work in the same geographical area. Most RUGs gather 2-3 times per year and are focused on providing training on RACF specific topics. Meetings are most often lead by an elected president and hosted at a RUG member's organization. A list of currently active RUGs is listed. If you would like to get involved in your community RUG, please reach out to the contacts listed. If you are interested in starting a RUG in your area, please email us at trainingteam@go2vanguard.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Active RACF User Groups

RUGONE (RUG Of the North East)

Location: Sturbridge, MA

Contacts: David Bell, The Hartford dbell@thehartford.com; Ken Bornhorst, Met Life kbornhorst@metlife.com; Bob Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc. r.hansel@rshconsulting.com

Next Meeting: TBD

Overview: RUGONE was created in 1987 to serve the professional education needs of the RACF community in the Northeastern U.S. We hold full-day meetings 2 to 3 times per year. RUGONE usually meets in Sturbridge, MA.
RUGONE has corporate memberships. The membership fee is $50/year. Attendees from member organizations are admitted to meetings either free of charge or at a reduced fee.

Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana RACF Users Group (KOIRUG)

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Contacts: Barbara Rhoads, Cincinnati Financial barb_rhoads@cinfin.com; Bob Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc. r.hansel@rshconsulting.com

Next Meeting:Tuesday, November 1, 2011   

Location:

Cincinnati Financial Corporation

6200 S. Gilmore Rd., Fairfield, Ohio 45014

Time:

9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.          (Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.)

Cost:

** Free **

Agenda:

Websphere MQ Security
     Tom Schneider, IBM

UNIXPRIV Class
     Robert S. Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc.

How Grouping and Member Profiles are Merged during RACLIST
     Robert S. Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc.

Understanding Cryptography
     Greg Thomason, ASPG

Sponsor Presentation
     Carl Lundquist, ASPG

Presentation
Abstracts:

Websphere MQ Security
The presentation will provide an introduction to security for WebSphere MQ (WMQ) on z/OS. It will start with an overview of WMQ, and an emphasis on APIs and commands since they are the focus of security. Next, there will be an overview of the RACF classes that are defined to secure WMQ, and how they can be deployed. The final section will look at WMQ channel security, what userids are assigned to channels, and WMQ and SSL.

UNIXPRIV Class
Permission to certain UNIXPRIV class profiles can provide users with the ability to perform specific Superuser functions without requiring full Superuser authority. Other UNIXPRIV profiles influence RACF's decision as whether a user is allowed to access a file or directory. This presentation will introduce you to all the UNIXPRIV profiles and discuss how to make best use of them.

How Grouping and Member Profiles are Merged during RACLIST
During RACLISTing, RACF merges the profiles in a member/grouping class pair to form a combined set of profiles. Find out how RACF builds this set and what values it chooses for UACC, AUDIT, WARNING, and permissions.

Understanding Cryptography
This course is designed to familiarize IT professionals with the basic concepts of cryptography. Cryptography – the encrypting and decrypting of information that is deemed to be private and confidential – is an extremely important component of an organization’s security program. It provides an additional level of security should an intruder breach other aspects of your security system. This abridged course will discuss various cryptographic standards for today’s data center.

Sponsor Presentation
ASPG will briefly (15 minutes or less) introduce our choices for security administration and protection: Cryptomon, ReACT, MegaCryption and ERQ. There will be a special offer for KOIRUG attendees.

Speakers:

Tom Schneider, IBM
Tom Schneider has worked with WebSphere MQ (WMQ) as an administrator since the product was in beta before its release in 1992. During that time he has become more and more involved in security and compliance tasks for his team. Over the last several years, combining both of those areas of interest, he has created several presentations and articles about security for WMQ. In addition to WMQ, he has supported products, such as CICS, on the z/OS platform for over twenty years.

Greg Thomason, ASPG
Greg Thomason, is part of the ASPG technical support and education team. Greg Has worked for several Fortune 500 Companies and his background is in Security & Storage management.

Robert S. Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc.
Robert S. Hansel is Lead RACF Specialist and founder of RSH Consulting, Inc., a firm he established in 1992 and dedicated to helping clients strengthen their IBM z/OS mainframe access controls by fully exploiting all the capabilities and latest innovations in RACF. He has worked with IBM mainframes since 1976 and in information systems security since 1981. Mr. Hansel began working with RACF in 1986 and has been a RACF administrator, manager, auditor, instructor, developer, and consultant. He has reviewed, implemented, and enhanced RACF controls for major insurance firms, financial institutions, utilities, payment card processors, universities, hospitals, and international retailers. Mr. Hansel is especially skilled at redesigning and refining large-scale implementations of RACF using role-based access control concepts. He has also created elaborate automated tools to assist clients with RACF administration, database merging, identity management, and quality assurance.

Registration:

Contact Bill Bowles
 - Phone: 614-222-6529
 - Email: bbowles@opers.org

Advanced Registration is requested to ensure sufficient refreshments and handouts are available.

Directions:

Cincinnati Financial is located on S. Gilmore a short distance north of the I-275 Cincinnati Beltway at Exit 39. Look for Forrest Park Exit North (Cincinnati Mills mall (Bass Pro Shop)). Cincinnati Financial is approximately one block north of the shopping mall on the right.

See www.mapquest.com for more information to get to the Cincinnati Financial. (This link takes you right to the site map.)

Park in the Visitor's parking in the front of the building. If no visitor spots are available, you may use the parking in the rear of the building.

See the receptionist in the main lobby upon entry to the building to sign in and obtain instructions as to the location of the meeting. If you enter at either of the rear entrances, security staff will direct you to the lobby.

Overnight
Accommodations:

Hampton Inn, located next door to Cincinnati Financial and the Cincinnati Mills Mall. Phone: 513-942-3440

Overview: KOIRUG was created in 2003 to serve the professional education needs of the RACF community in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. Our plan is to hold full-day meetings twice a year. KOIRUG will usually meet in the Cincinnati area.

Chicago Land RACF Users Group (CHIRUG)

Location: Acxiom Corporation 3333 Finley Road, Downers Grove, IL 60515 OR via Webinar and bridge

Contacts: Pat Diya, CISA, CISM CISSP patricia.diya@acxiom.com

Next Meeting: TBD

Overview: CHIRUG serves the Illinois, Iowa and Southern Wisconsin RACF Community. Meetings are held approximately 2 - 3 times per year.

We generally will meet at Acxiom Corporation in Downers Grove, Illinois; however, we have met at other locations in the Chicagoland area on occasion. We often have a teleconference bridge available for those members who cannot join in person and occasionally we have WEBEX capability.

New York RACF Users Group (NYRUG)

Location: New York City area

Contact: Stu Henderson stu@stuhenderson.com

Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Time: 10:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m.

Meeting Location: DTCC (downtown Manhattan) with teleconference to Tampa RUG
                                  55 Water Street, New York, NY 10041

                                  Local Contact: I-Kim Roderick 212-855-1851

Agenda (subject to change, and in no particular order):

"RRSF with TCP/IP" by Laurie Ward of IBM

"Identity Propagation: How Distributed Identities can now be recognized in z/OS" by Simon Dodge of Wells Fargo (See how z/OS 1.11 offers new functionality that removes the barrier between Distributed world and z/OS world. See a distributed Identity recorded in SMF data to achieve “End to End accountability” See how you can move the mapping/translation of End user id to RACF id from the application arena into Security administration (where it belongs). Learn which subsystems can already exploit Identity Propagation (it isn’t just CICS) )

"So, you LOST your (MASTER) keys?" by Dave Hilliard of IBM(INFO about ICSF, setting keys, planning for hardware and software changes (and HOW to handle IF those keys are really 'lost', new cards, a replacement card, whole new frames (say a z/10 to a z/196) )

"Open Discussion of What Health Checker Checks You Like Best" led by Stu and Hayim

"RACF Rewind: Advanced Features" by Hayim Sokolsky

On-site security requirements:

  • Bring a valid photo-ID to enter DTCC.
  • Allow extra time (30 minutes) due to security.
  • All packages are subject to x-ray and examination.

 
Directions:

  • Google Maps provides great point-to-point driving directions.
  • Hop Stop provides great point-to-point mass transit directions.

Overview: The NYRUG meets twice a year, in April and October, usually on a Tuesday afternoon.

Carolinas RACF Users (CRUG)

Location: Charlotte, NC

Contacts: Sherry Courtney, Wachovia bobandsherrycourtney@yahoo.com; Bob Hansel, RSH Consulting, Inc. r.hansel@rshconsulting.com; Erin French, First Citizens erin.french@firstcitizens.com

Next Meeting: TBD

Overview: An effort is currently underway to resurrect the former North Carolina RUG as the new Carolinas RUG. We plan to hold 2 full-day meetings per year.

Southern California RACF Users Group (SCRUG)

Location: Orange County

Contact: SoCalRug@gmail.com

Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Time: 9am to 3.30pm

Address: IBM
                  600 Anton Blvd.,
                  Costa Mesa

Agenda: Pending

Overview: Reviving a now dormant RUG. SCRUG was created to serve the professional educational needs of the RACF community in Southern California. Our plan is to hold full-day meetings 3 or 4 times each year. SCRUG will usually meet in the LA – Orange County area.

Greater St Louis RACF Users Group

Location: St. Louis area

Contacts: June Dabbs jad2222@bjc.org

Next Meeting: TBD

Overview: Usually co-hosted with Local ISSA Chapter on the 3rd Tuesday of each month

Tampa Florida RACF Users Group

Location: Tampa FL

Contacts: Hayim Sokolsky hsokolsky@dtcc.com, Lisa Gobert lgobert@dtcc.com, or Stu Henderson stu@stuhenderson.com

Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Time: 10:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m.

Meeting Location: DTCC (teleconference with New York RUG)
                                  18301 Bermuda Green Drive, Tampa, FL 33647
                                  Local Contact:  Dale Miller  813-470-2184

Agenda : See New York RUG above

On-site security requirements:

  • Bring a valid photo-ID to enter DTCC.
  • Allow extra time (30 minutes) due to security.
  • All packages are subject to x-ray and examination.

Note: The only access to DTCC is from Bermuda Green Drive.

  • Turn at 4th left on to Bermuda Green Drive – there is one single left turn lane. The visual marker is the sign for Burns & Wilcox, and Jacobs.
  • At guard booth, using the right “visitors” lane, and present your ID to the guard.
  • Continue through gate to parking garage on your right. Park in any valid spot on any level.
  • Exit the garage and enter the building using the Visitor’s Entrance (left side).



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