The Internet opened up a whole new world of crime for those motivated enough to go and find it, and now virtualization has opened the criminal door a crack wider for those who are in the know. VMs as well as public and private clouds suffer from a number of potentially devastating security issues, and while security spending is increasing across the board, Infonetics Research predicts that it won’t be the current market leaders that define the new virtual security industry.
According to security analyst Jeff Wilson of Infonetics, companies like VMware and Microsoft, who have defined the hypervisor movement, will never provide security services that are robust or specific enough for clients. Instead, they will provide basic security options and leave the detail work to companies that want to make names for themselves in the field, leading to a wide array of market opportunities for the right security firm.
Right now, the most important problems facing VMs are inter-VM threat and VM hopping. Inter-VM threat occurs when a hacker takes control of a single VM and then gains access to the underlying hypervisor, allowing them access to control of all the VMs on the system. VM hopping is when a hacker is able to control multiple virtual servers that all run on the same hardware – a possible problem for those companies with a great deal of “virtual sprawl.”
To combat these issues, especially since much VM-to-VM traffic is invisible to current security measures, companies are going to need to create new and innovative solutions. Those that do so will be rewarded with a significant share of market dollars and confidence, and could easily make their mark on the cloud industry over the next two years.
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