| For the security researchers out there, mainframes are really under-researched. There just aren't many people that have the expertise in the platform required for security research. And most of the people who do have expertise in the platform are often oblivious to technologies outside of the mainframe. (If you've ever dealt with mainframe people, you might know what I am talking about.) It's unfortunate, but too often true. Our best mainframe guy is brilliant. I've never met anyone more technically skilled in his platform. But ask him a basic Windows or a Linux question? Forget it. With today's complex stack of multiple platforms in most enterprises, a good security researcher, IMHO, should be fluent with both worlds. Mainframes are where some of our most critical data is stored. When you pull up your account balance through your bank's website, there's a good chance that value was read off a mainframe. Mainframers are old-school. They don't believe in public disclosure or open security models or public audits. If you go through the DEFCON and BlackHat archives, there's not much mainframe research out there. There's just a small community of mainframers on the Internet, but it's a significant part of the world's infrastructure. The mainframe world is a crazy alternate reality. (I know, because it's my day job.) Phillip Young, the guy who owns this Tumblr project, has made some waves in this community. His talks are a great place to start. Here's a few resources to get you started: [0]: http://mainframed767.tumblr.com/ [1]: http://bigendiansmalls.tumblr.com/ [2]: https://media.blackhat.com/us-13/US-13-Young-Mainframes-The-... [3]: http://www.slideshare.net/bigendiansmalls/security-necromanc... [4]: https://defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/Youn... [5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfl4spvM5DI [6]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ra4Ehmifh4 Also, IBM.com has a wealth of documentation. (They have terrible SEO though.) Checkout the z/OS RedBooks and manauls there. |