What it Means to be Secure

What do we think about when we think about security?

Is it confidentiality – the assurance that your intellectual property is safe from those who want to steal and exploit it? Is it integrity – the knowledge that your essential business data can’t be modified or destroyed by hackers? Or is it the certainty that you have provisions in place that will continue to make your systems available in the face of failures or denial-of-service attacks?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is all this and so much else. More so than any issue impacting IT today, security is the most complicated, multi-faceted, and ever-changing. And it’s also the most critical. At a time when one small exposure can devalue a company’s brand, you simply have to get security right.

It should be reassuring, then, that in a continually changing threat landscape, you have the tested, proven security of the ClearPath Forward™ environment on your side.

Security in Our DNA

Security is at the very heart of what defines a ClearPath Forward system. It’s been built from the ground up since day one. It’s in our DNA.

From the start, our approach has focused on isolating the applications running within each system to prevent them from accessing one another’s data unless it’s explicitly shared.

While the hardware architecture underpinning the systems has changed dramatically – shifting from proprietary chipsets to an all Intel® foundation – every bit of this approach is still present.

It’s just moved into the ClearPath® firmware. And it’s even emulated in the software-only deliverables offered under the ClearPath Software Series umbrella.

It’s evident in the ClearPath MCP and OS 2200 operating environments, too. Leveraging the principle of least privilege, the MCP and OS 2200 environments let you defend against unauthorized data access and modification by permitting users to do only what’s required to perform their day-to-day responsibilities, nothing more. And with robust auditing and recovery capabilities, you have the tools to detect accidental or malicious actions and apply sophisticated recovery techniques to restore them.

The ClearPath Forward environment also provides robust identification and system access controls, as well as cryptographic processes designed to support secure data interchanges and protect the data stored on your system. You can even control access for each authorized user at the file and database object levels.

What’s more, because your environment routinely interacts with networks that include hundreds or even thousands of external systems, a vital aspect of security is the ability to isolate the trusted components from the rest.

That’s where the Unisys Stealth® security portfolio comes into play. Unlike firewalls, which allow or disallow traffic based on network addresses, Stealth bases its access decisions on user identities. It conceals endpoints from unauthorized users, making your ClearPath Forward environment invisible to an attacker’s eyes. At the same time, Stealth allows and encrypts network traffic based on communities of interest (COIs) that you define, providing yet another layer of protection.

And finally, through partnerships with third-party vendors, such as Locum Software and Formula Consultants, Inc., we’re able to complement our security measures with a number of tools that were designed to function effectively within the infrastructure.

This multi-layered approach means there’s no need to seek out, implement, and integrate your own security infrastructure. It’s all done for you, all right within the ClearPath Forward environment, release after release.

Never Stopping, Never Resting

Numerous security measures are certainly valuable. But to be truly effective, they must keep pace with the times. After all, a secure environment today could be vulnerable tomorrow.

That’s why we’re constantly evaluating our approach and incorporating standards, like the latest Payment Card Industry guidelines, as appropriate. Similarly, we routinely commission external, unbiased security reviews, such as the latest McAfee assessments of the OS 2200 and MCP operating environments, to evaluate how we’re performing, see what’s changed, and rework our policies and procedures in response. And we often work with clients to understand how their needs should be reflected in future updates.

Doing so helps us provide richer insights to our clients. This typically takes the form of security guides – single-source overviews of all things security, from how it works at a high level all the way down to configuration specifics. In this way, the guides make it easier to tailor security measures to your needs. They can also help you show your auditors just how safe your environment truly is.

Securing the Next Era

And as your operations take a turn towards application centricity – and use the Software Series to embrace software-only, hybrid-cloud operations – you won’t have to worry about jeopardizing the safety and integrity of your critical applications and data.

The ClearPath Forward environment’s proven security measures extend to new contexts – and are further complemented by the Stealth portfolio’s ability to micro-segment your network.

When you protect your systems and data to this degree, you’ll feel confident knowing that you’re providing the same security you’ve grown accustomed to – without restricting your organization’s ability to play an integral role in tomorrow’s IT world.

For more about security and the ClearPath Forward environment, we encourage you to read the MCP and OS 2200 “Unsurpassed Security” white papers, as well as the “Thinking Security” posts on the ClearPath Forward & Innovation blog.

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