Is Your Mainframe Audit-Ready? (Most Organizations Would Fail This Test)

For decades, mainframes have operated as the silent workhorses of enterprise infrastructure, processing billions of transactions, safeguarding critical data, and powering the backbone of industries from banking to healthcare.

The regulatory landscape continues to shift. Organizations must have an enforcement-ready audit and reporting program in place to avoid civil or criminal penalties under the new DOJ guidelines for data classification and export controls. Your mainframe, once considered inherently secure by its isolation, is now expected to meet the same rigorous compliance standards as cloud platforms and distributed systems.

The real cost of non-compliance in 2025

The average cost of a data breach in the United States has surged to $10.22 million in 2025 (IBM, 2025), primarily driven by higher regulatory fines and detection costs.  Even more concerning, 48% of organizations that experienced a data breach paid $100,000 or more in regulatory fines (IBM, 2025).

For heavily regulated industries, the financial impact multiplies:

• Healthcare: Healthcare data breaches average $7.42 million and take 279 days to identify and contain, which is five weeks longer than the global average (HIPAA Journal)
• Financial Services: Banks and insurance companies face scrutiny under SOX, GLBA, PCI DSS, and more, which require annual mainframe risk assessments and penetration testing.
• Government: FISMA now mandates continuous cybersecurity planning and data inventories for all federal systems and contractors.

The threat extends well beyond immediate finds. The reputational harm, customer churn, and operational disruption compound over months or years, challenging organizations and removing focus from core operations.

Why mainframes are under the microscope

“The message is clear: treat mainframes as first-class citizens in your data privacy and security architecture.” (2025 Mainframe Compliance Countdown: Preparing for New Regulations) There are no longer “data at rest” exceptions for the mainframe.

Modern compliance frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOX, along with emerging regulations like DORA, do not distinguish between platforms; they demand:

• Data classification at scale: Knowing what sensitive data exists, where it resides, and how it moves.
• Real-time monitoring and alerting: Compliance has shifted from annual audits to almost daily requests, forcing teams to be reactive rather than proactive (Planet Mainframe).
• Audit-ready documentation: Demonstrating controls are not just in place but actively enforced.
• Export control enforcement: Mechanisms to block unauthorized transfers of regulated data.

Complex mainframe environments are not easily mapped to compliance controls designed for distributed systems. Mainframe logs, SMF records, RACF logs, and CICS traces require customer parsing before they can integrate with enterprise SIEM platforms, creating gaps in the auditing process.

The Compliance Countdown: What has Changed in 2025

Several critical deadlines and regulatory updates demand action:

1. DOJ Data Classification Mandate (October 2025) Organizations must implement data classification and export controls, with enforcement-ready audit and reporting programs in place by October 6, 2025 (The National Law Review).
2. Proposed HIPAA Security Rule Modernization. Expected finalization in 2025, upgrades require multifactor authentication, encryption, data flow mapping, and vendor oversight for systems handling electronic protected health information (ePHI), many of which still rely on mainframes in healthcare and government (metricstream).

How Leading Organizations are Closing Compliance Gaps

The good news? Organizations that take a proactive, integrated approach to mainframe security and compliance are seeing quantifiable results.

Automate FTP Security Without JCL Changes. One of the most common compliance headaches involves legacy file transfer processes. VitalSigns for FTP and SSH- Tectia  collaborate to offer automatic FTP-to-SFTP conversions on z/OS, eliminating the need for JCL changes and resolving FTP compliance headaches while maintaining multiple layers of security.

Integrate Mainframe Security with Enterprise SIEM. Real-time mainframe intrusion detection and SIEM integration facilitate compliance with government mandates such as PCI DSS, FISMA, HIPAA, and SOX. Modern solutions, such as VitalSigns SIEM Agent for z/OS, deliver security event messages from RACF, CA-ACF2, CA-Top Secret, DB2, IMS, CICS, FTP, and TCP/IP to distributed SIEM platforms in real-time.

Automate Compliance Monitoring. Continuous monitoring solutions, such as Ironsphere, can immediately trigger alerts and deliver easy-to-follow remediation steps to ensure compliance with standards such as GDPR, FISM, and DISA STIGs.

The Path Forward: Compliance as a Strategic Advantage

Mainframe compliance is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and improvement. Organizations that implement security-focused tools on the mainframe will be better positioned to meet requirements and are less likely to experience a significant security breach.

The organizations that thrive in an ever-changing regulatory environment understand that compliance is not just about avoiding penalties; it is about achieving operational resilience, fostering customer trust, and maintaining competitive differentiation.

Key Steps to Take Now:

1. Conduct a compliance gap assessment specific to your mainframe environment
2. Implement automated security controls that do not require massive JCL rewrites
3. Integrate mainframe security data into your enterprise SIEM for unified visibility
4. Deploy encryption for data at rest and in transit across all platforms
5. Establish continuous monitoring rather than point-in-time audits
6. Document everything for audit-ready evidence of controls

The era of the invisible mainframe is over. In 2025’s regulatory landscape, visibility, automation, and integration aren’t options; they are the foundation of sustainable compliance.

Mainframes process trillions of dollars in transactions and store the most sensitive data. Compliance strategies need to reflect that reality.

Ready to strengthen your mainframe compliance posture? Contact SDS for more information on our security and compliance solutions or request a personalized demonstration. Call 800-443-6183 or visit https://www.sdsusa.com/mainframe-security-compliance/.

Additional Sources:
2025 Mainframe Compliance Countdown: Preparing for New Regulations, https://www.pkware.com/blog/2025-mainframe-compliance-countdown