Protection icon PK Protect For z/OS

Mainframe Discovery and Protection Solution: Security for Critical z/OS Data

PKWARE provides enterprise-wide discovery of z/OS applications and critical data elements to enable compliance and modernization. Backed by four decades of mainframe expertise and IBM Partner Plus status, we’re a proven leader in solving complex z/OS data security challenges.

zOS

Trusted By Leading Organizations for Over 40 Years

JPMorganChase3
Truist
Fiserv
WesternUnion
zOS

Gain Comprehensive Visibility of z/OS Application Datasets

Organizations running on IBM z/OS often struggle to identify where sensitive data resides and how it’s used as it moves beyond the mainframe. This lack of visibility creates compliance challenges and security risks. PK Protect solves this by delivering discovery of application data, critical data elements, and processes. Discovery, paired with persistent encryption, simplifies regulatory compliance, reduces risk, and accelerates modernization.

Why PK Protect for z/OS

Ensure Compliance

Uncover Risks and Ensure Compliance

When mainframe data leaves z/OS, organizations lose track of where sensitive information exists, leading to security and compliance gaps. Our mainframe data security platform reveals these exposure risks with application and critical data element discovery so you can meet mandates and avoid fines for noncompliance. It also accelerates SBOM (software bill of materials) creation, saving time during audits and delivering insights into sensitive elements and application components.

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Ensure Compliance

Prevent Data Leakage and Enforce Governance

PK Protect provides application discovery and encryption to proactively prevent data exposure, at rest and in motion. It enables persistent encryption for data moving in and out of z/OS, de-identifies production data for safe use in lower environments, and secures sensitive information before it enters AI models, ensuring governance and minimizing risk across the data lifecycle.

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Support Application Modernization and Cloud Migration

Most organizations on the mainframe are modernizing workloads on z/OS or integrating them with the cloud, rather than moving off the platform. Our mainframe discovery solution supports this by scanning and harvesting mainframe metadata, preventing exposure during cloud migrations. It also maps legacy data to compliant cloud storage structures. This ensures sensitive data remains protected, simplifies audits, and strengthens long-term governance.

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Real World Impact:
$150M in Fines Avoided

One of the largest U.S. financial institutions faced a PCI DSS 4.0 compliance deadline. Using PK Protect for z/OS, they scanned 504 million VSAM records and uncovered 422 million credit card numbers and 450 million Social Security numbers, 88% of which were vulnerable and at risk. By identifying and securing this sensitive data, they avoided an estimated $150 million in potential fines. This demonstrates the importance of proactive discovery and protection.

Driving Compliance, Visibility, and Protection at Western Union

PK Protect for z/OS Features

Data Discovery v1

Precise Discovery for Application Datasets

Our mainframe data security platform leverages application data definitions to identify sensitive data accurately, even within unstructured, binary streams lacking field headers. This visibility into application data and metadata eliminates manual mapping, streamlines compliance efforts, and accelerates audit readiness.

Data Masking v1

End-to-End Protection with Persistent Encryption

While IBM Pervasive Encryption secures data on z/OS, protection ends when data leaves the mainframe. Transfer protocols encrypt data in transit, but once data reaches its destination, it’s exposed. This fragmented transport and disk-based security introduces risk. PK Protect closes this gap, applying persistent encryption that travels with data.

PK Protect Provides Broad Platform Integration

Related Products

DSM listing

PK Protect Data Store Manager

Reduce risk with proactive security across structured and unstructured data in databases, data lakes, cloud repositories, and packaged applications. Data Store Manager discovers and masks sensitive data everywhere, ensuring it remains safe even in the event of a breach.

PEM listing

PK Protect Endpoint Manager

Secure sensitive user data at rest and in motion seamlessly with Endpoint Manager for continuous compliance and data security. You can find sensitive data and apply policy-driven protections, defined centrally, to label, encrypt, redact, move, delete, or quarantine it automatically.

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Mainframe Discovery and Protection FAQs

PK Protect for z/OS stands out because it can accurately map schemas for every application dataset on z/OS. This capability solves a problem that most solutions consider “unsolvable.” PK Protect uses data definitions to achieve precise discovery of sensitive data.

z/OS data sets often contain streams of unstructured binary data without field headers or recognizable structures. Without these markers, finding sensitive data is nearly impossible without additional context, like data definitions.

Most solutions rely on scanning structured data sources such as DB2 and IMS databases. While structured data is relatively easy to handle, these solutions fail when it comes to unstructured z/OS datasets because they lack the ability to interpret raw binary streams accurately.

Data definitions provide the blueprint for understanding data organization within z/OS datasets. PK Protect uses these resources to interpret and locate sensitive information, ensuring precise discovery and classification.

IBM Pervasive Encryption secures data on the mainframe, but what happens when you need to distribute it? When data moves out of the mainframe, the z-level security disappears. Transfer protocols encrypt data in transit, but once at its destination, it’s no longer protected. This creates a fragmented security model and introduces risk. PK Protect solves this by persistently protecting data, even when the data moves in and out of z/OS. This ensures end-to-end security and compliance, no matter where your data travels.