ijrde-enhancing the security and effectiveness of map (hmi) in mainframe cics applications

7/30/2019 IJRDE-ENHANCING THE SECURITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF MAP (HMI) IN MAINFRAME CICS APPLICATIONS.

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International Journal for Research and Development in Engineering (IJRDE)

www.ijrde.com Vol.1: Issue.2, October-November 2012 pp- 1-6

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ENHANCING THE SECURITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF MAP

(HMI) IN MAINFRAME CICS APPLICATIONS.

C.CHRISTINA BEULA, GAUTAM SIDDHARTH, KUNJAL BANAVALA, SRUTHI.B,

RISHI HANSDA

*(Tata Consultancy Services, India)

Abstract:

Attractive interfaces and security aspects go

hand in hand in modern day mobile and web

applications. Hence we ventured out to

implement these concepts in the mainframe

CICS environment (known as BIG IRON). Circle

interface provides a rich visual interface and

also has an added advantage which helps the

user to know the most recently and the most

frequently accessed application/page. The

features such as security image and password

locking covers the security aspects of our

application. This kind of application offers anefficient and secure package to the user which

helps in achieving customer delight. Hence in

this paper we have provided our inputs for

developing user-friendly yet secure interface

which enables mainframe to be used for various

front end applications.

Keywords: Circle interface, Effective GUI,

Application security, User-friendly application,

CICS application.

1.1. Effective GUI:

The gaining importance of effective GUI

amongst the consumers has imposed a thrust

on the design of an interface. Designing an

efficient and attractive interface poses a big

challenge in the design and development of

any application. The look and feel of theinterfaces revolutionized with dawn of the

new concepts like Circle Interfaces. The

introduction of circle interface has helped

the user directly enter a desired application

skipping the cumbersome process of

traverse through multiple screens before

ending up at the desired location/page. In

short, it provides an eagles view of the

various options that are available in an

application with no/minimal user inputs.

Thus Circle interface provides a simple,

easy and rich visual interface which is both

pleasing and logical and hence serve as an

excellent communication tool. The success

stories of some of the leading pioneers in the

field of Circle Interface like Apple and

Google+ bear witness for its critical acclaim.

1.2. Safe and Secure GUI:

Additionally providing a safe and secure

application is also the need of the hour. With

this in mind, to make the mainframe more


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secure, we have implemented a security

image which mimics the CAPTCHA

environment used in most of the current

generation web applications. The image

which is captured during registration is

verified in forgot password screen to check

for credibility of the user, thereby tagging

security to the mainframe application. The

concept of locking the username and

password when a user tries to login with the

wrong credentials more than thrice ensures

that the application is hack-free. Hence, in

the current work, we have tried to

implement the circular interface in themainframe environment which has an added

advantage of being safe and secure which

helps the user experience trust.

2. Algorithms:

Here is an example of implementation of

circular interface and security concepts in

Mainframe. Our sample application consists

of the following four options:

Addition Subtraction Menu WelcomeThe home page displays the above

mentioned options in a circular menu and

the user can enter any desired

page/application by clicking on the

appropriate icon. The following steps are

taken for the implementation of circular

interface:

Step 1:

Depiction of various options on the home

page (as shown in Figure 4.1).

Step 2:

Determining the cursor positions for each

option and providing the feature that when

ENTER key is pressed the program checks

for the cursor position and the application

which is currently present in that position

(as shown in Figure 4.2), and shifts the

control to the corresponding program.

Conditional return is maintained so as to

retain the control is in the first program.

Step 3:

Once the control has been passed to the

respective program, calculations are

performed according to the requirements of

the map/program and when F3 is pressed thecontrol returns to the main program with a

different commarea. For example, if the

control returns form Welcome page, it

possess 'ABC2' as its commarea value.

Step 4:

Upon returning to the main program,

depending on the commarea the most recent

map accessed is placed at the top by movingthe labels and the number of times the map

is accessed is stored in the map_count table

in the database to keep track of the

frequently accessed page/map(as shown in


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Figure 4.3). Note that the conditions for

EIBCPOSN have changed (as shown in

Figure 4.4) corresponding to the changes in

the label position.

Step 5:

Step 2 to 4 are repeated every time ENTER

key is pressed. Also every time the main

screen updates the number of times the map

has been accessed after the transaction. This

detail is fetched from the table map_count.

The security aspects of the application are

implemented by incorporation of the imagecapturing technique (as shown in Figure 4.5)

during new user registration and validating

the image for its name and number in the

forget password page. Figure 4.6 shows the

user registration page wherein a new user

selects an image and assigns a name to it.

Later, when the user tries to reset his

password in addition to validating the email-

id, the user's credibility is checked for by

asking him/her to reenter the image numberand name. If the entered name and image

matches that provided during registration,

the user is allowed to reset his/her password.

In addition to this feature, a secure

environment to the application was added by

providing a mechanism for locking the

account when the user tries to login with the

wrong credentials more than thrice. Hence

all these features together ensure that the

application is safe, secure and presentable.

3. Applications:

A pleasant, attractive and secure GUI

has now become an integral component of

any application. Hence, this innovative

interface possesses the inherent ability to fit

into wide range of day to day applications.

Some striking scenarios includes the use of

Circle Interface as the GUI in ATMs (easeof access), as a replacement for the

conventional drop-down list in networking

sites (improved presentation logic), as menu

tool for small screen devices (efficient space

management). Its relatively simple design

enables both a novice and an expert user

experience ease in accessing application.

Moreover, the salient features of the

application qualify it to be used for

situations which demand security. Thus the

application helps in providing a user-

friendly, robust and visually enriched

interface.

4. Figures:


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Figure 4.1: Screen depicting the circle interface in a mainframe environment

Figure 4.2: Condition for navigation based on cursor position


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Figure 4.3: Condition for placing the recently accessed page/option at the top

Figure 4.5: Security image capturing during registration


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Figure 4.6: Security image validation for forget password

5. Conclusion:

The scope of mainframe is endless.Exploring its potential will lead to

implementation of mainframes for a variety

of useful front end applications. This will be

of great benefit to the user as it provides a

combination of larger memory, high

processing speed and user-friendly interface.

Further enhancements to the current

application such as provision for username,

password and database encryption would

further enhance its applicability.

6. Acknowledgments:

We would like to thank our technical lead

Mr. Robin Tommy who was instrumental in

helping us with our project work.

7. References:

[1]. Le Bert, CICS Essentials for Application

Developers and Programmers

[2]. Meier et al, Improving Web Application

Security: Threats and Countermeasures,

Microsoft patterns & practices, June 2003

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