I had an interesting experience at a client (Defence). I was sitting in a shared area with an IBM rep and a couple of Defence staff.
I put a USB stick into my desktop and a Defence public servant went off at me. I had no idea that it was forbidden since at another client site, the USB ports were disabled. Defence have USB drives that carry password protection and are rarely available. That won't stop malware being transferred if it can be copied onto the drive. This again comes back to trust issues. The mainframe already had PDS86 installed and some other CBT utilities. The IBM rep later admitted that he used a personal USB drive all the time and hadn't been briefed on the rules. On Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 6:47 AM Mark Zelden <[email protected]> wrote: > I always ask permission before downloading CBT tools or anything else like > that, or my own free tools. In days of old, I backed it up to 3480 carts. > Then TSO XMIT of my PDSes and keeping them on a USB drive. I have seen > USBs locked down, but that hasn't been a problem for me. > > If I was doing an ad-hoc consultant gig with a specific task or tasks and > they wanted me to re-invent the wheel for simple JCL or have to constantly > ask about things that I could easily figure out with SHOWMVS, IPLINFO or do > things quicker with PDS86 etc. etc., it is their money and my hourly rate > and I would do what they wanted. So far, I've never had anyone ever tell > me I couldn't use non-APF authorized freeware to help get my job done. > That being consulting or as an employee. > > What I don't do is suggest to or put freeware as part of any production > process, job etc. That includes very useful tools, but I still won't do > it. Sysprog use only, fine. Production use, no. > > Oh, and I always do leave my personal (mostly) JCL PDS when I leave a > shop. Nothing "secret" or copyrighted in there, just years and years of > helpful samples, doc, etc. that is part of what my client gets by hiring > me. > > > Regards, > > Mark > -- > Mark Zelden - Zelden Consulting Services - z/OS, OS/390 and MVS > ITIL v3 Foundation Certified > mailto:[email protected] > Mark's MVS Utilities: http://www.mzelden.com/mvsutil.html > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Wayne V. Bickerdike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
