A step-by-step guide to identifying and defending against attacks on the virtual environment As more and more data is moved into virtual environments the need to secure them becomes increasingly important. Useful for service providers as well as enterprise and small business IT professionals the book offers a broad look across virtualization used in various industries as well as a narrow view of vulnerabilities unique to virtual environments. A companion DVD is included with recipes and testing scripts. Examines the difference in a virtual model versus traditional computing models and the appropriate technology and procedures to defend it from attack Dissects and exposes attacks targeted at the virtual environment and the steps necessary for defense Covers information security in virtual environments: building a virtual attack lab, finding leaks, getting a side-channel, denying or compromising services, abusing the hypervisor, forcing an interception, and spreading infestations Accompanying DVD includes hands-on examples and code This how-to guide arms IT managers, vendors, and architects of virtual environments with the tools they need to protect against common threats.

Securing virtual environments for VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft hypervisors Virtualization changes the playing field when it comes to security. There are new attack vectors, new operational patterns and complexity, and changes in IT architecture and deployment life cycles. What's more, the technologies, best practices, and strategies used for securing physical environments do not provide sufficient protection for virtual environments. This book includes step-by-step configurations for the security controls that come with the three leading hypervisor--VMware vSphere and ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008, and Citrix XenServer. Includes strategy for securely implementing network policies and integrating virtual networks into the existing physical infrastructure Discusses vSphere and Hyper-V native virtual switches as well as the Cisco Nexus 1000v and Open vSwitch switches Offers effective practices for securing virtual machines without creating additional operational overhead for administrators Contains methods for integrating virtualization into existing workflows and creating new policies and processes for change and configuration management so that virtualization can help make these critical operations processes more effective This must-have resource offers tips and tricks for improving disaster recovery and business continuity, security-specific scripts, and examples of how Virtual Desktop Infrastructure benefits security.

The purpose of SP 800-125 is to discuss the security concerns associated with full virtualization technologies for server and desktop virtualization, and to provide recommendations for addressing these concerns. Full virtualization technologies run one or more operating systems and their applications on top of virtual hardware. Full virtualization is used for operational efficiency, such as in cloud computing, and for allowing users to run applications for multiple operating systems on a single computer.

One of the biggest buzzwords in the IT industry for the past few years, virtualization has matured into a practical requirement for many best-practice business scenarios, becoming an invaluable tool for security professionals at companies of every size. In addition to saving time and other resources, virtualization affords unprecedented means for intrusion and malware detection, prevention, recovery, and analysis. Taking a practical approach in a growing market underserved by books, this hands-on title is the first to combine in one place the most important and sought-after uses of virtualization for enhanced security, including sandboxing, disaster recovery and high availability, forensic analysis, and honeypotting.Already gaining buzz and traction in actual usage at an impressive rate, Gartner research indicates that virtualization will be the most significant trend in IT infrastructure and operations over the next four years. A recent report by IT research firm IDC predicts the virtualization services market will grow from $5.5 billion in 2006 to $11.7 billion in 2011. With this growth in adoption, becoming increasingly common even for small and midsize businesses, security is becoming a much more serious concern, both in terms of how to secure virtualization and how virtualization can serve critical security objectives. Titles exist and are on the way to fill the need for securing virtualization, but security professionals do not yet have a book outlining the many security applications of virtualization that will become increasingly important in their job requirements. This book is the first to fill that need, covering tactics such as isolating a virtual environment on the desktop for application testing, creating virtualized storage solutions for immediate disaster recovery and high availability across a network, migrating physical systems to virtual systems for analysis, and creating complete virtual systems to entice hackers and expose potential threats to actual production systems.About the TechnologiesA sandbox is an isolated environment created to run and test applications that might be a security risk. Recovering a compromised system is as easy as restarting the virtual machine to revert to the point before failure. Employing virtualization on actual production systems, rather than just test environments, yields similar benefits for disaster recovery and high availability. While traditional disaster recovery methods require time-consuming reinstallation of the operating system and applications before restoring data, backing up to a virtual machine makes the recovery process much easier, faster, and efficient. The virtual machine can be restored to same physical machine or an entirely different machine if the original machine has experienced irreparable hardware failure. Decreased downtime translates into higher availability of the system and increased productivity in the enterprise.Virtualization has been used for years in the field of forensic analysis, but new tools, techniques, and automation capabilities are making it an increasingly important tool. By means of virtualization, an investigator can create an exact working copy of a physical computer on another machine, including hidden or encrypted partitions, without altering any data, allowing complete access for analysis. The investigator can also take a live ?snapshot? to review or freeze the target computer at any point in time, before an attacker has a chance to cover his tracks or inflict further damage.

A practitioners' handbook on securing virtualization, cloud computing, and mobility, this book bridges academic theory with real world implementation. It provides pragmatic guidance on securing the multi-faceted layers of private and public cloud deployments as well as mobility infrastructures. The book offers in-depth coverage of implementation plans, workflows, process consideration points, and project planning. Topics covered include physical and virtual segregation, orchestration security, threat intelligence, identity management, cloud security assessments, cloud encryption services, audit and compliance, certifications, secure mobile architecture and secure mobile coding standards.

Hyper-V Security is intended for administrators with a solid working knowledge of Hyper-V Server, Windows Server, and Active Directory. An administrator with a functional environment will be able to use the knowledge and examples present in this book to enhance security.

A proliferation of new technologies has lulled many into thinking that we actually have to think less about how we communicate. In fact, communicating and collaborating across time, distance, and cultures has never been more complex or difficult. Written as a series of bulleted tips drawn from client experiences and best practices, Leading Effective Virtual Teams: Overcoming Time and Distance to Achieve Exceptional Results presents practical tips to help leaders engage and motivate their geographically dispersed project team members. If you’re a leader of any type of virtual team and want to help your team members collaborate more effectively, then buy this book. You will learn how to: Build trust and cultivate relationships, virtually, across your team Design and facilitate virtual meetings that are focused and engaging Influence without authority Motivate and galvanize a virtual team for top performance Blend asynchronous and synchronous communications for better virtual collaboration Navigate cross-cultural and generational differences in the absence of vital visual cues Assess skills, strengths, aptitudes, and preferences from afar Handle other tough issues that can trip up virtual teams The ideas in this book are based on Nancy Settle-Murphy’s decades of experience working as a change management consultant, facilitator, and trainer for project teams around the world. Designed to be read section by section in any order, this book shares approaches and techniques to help you address some of the toughest challenges virtual team leaders face, including keeping team members engaged from afar.

Virtualization is a skill that most IT or security pros take for granted. The sheer number of choices and requirements can be a daunting challenge to face for beginners and veterans alike. With this book, you'll learn how to build a robust, customizable virtual environments suitable for both a personal home lab, as well as a dedicated office training environment. You will learn how to: - Understand the mechanics of virtualization and how they influence the design of your lab - Build an extensive baseline lab environment on any one of five commonly used hypervisors (VMware vSphere Hypervisor, VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, Oracle Virtualbox, and Microsoft Client Hyper-V) - Harden your lab environment against VM escapes and other security threats - Configure the pfSense firewall distribution to provide security, segmentation, and network services to your virtual lab - Deploy either Snort or Suricata open-source IDS platforms in IPS mode to further enhance the flexibility, segmentation and security of your lab network - Deploy Splunk as a log management solution for your lab - Reconfigure the provided baseline lab environment to better suit your individual needs Easy to follow steps and illustrations provide detailed, comprehensive guidance as you build your custom-tailored lab. Both IT and security professionals need practice environments to better hone their craft. Learn how to build and maintain your own with Building Flexible Virtual Machine Labs

Big data requires big security; here's what you need to know More data is collected, at a higher speed, in more formats than ever before. Traditional information security simply has been unable to keep up with this transformation, which presents IT managers with a difficult dilemma. On the one hand everyone from the smallest company to the largest government is beginning to make use of giant lakes of information. The value proposition is clear. On the other hand, more harm than benefit looms when considering many of the realities of big data security. Even without specific solutions there may be workarounds and compensating controls to consider. The Realities of Big Data helps IT leaders identify how and where to best protect Big Data environments from disclosure, disruption or loss. Reveals emerging security risks of Big Data from the view of both IT and business management. Details the underlying reasons behind security gaps, how to find the gaps quickly and reliably, the options to consider for reducing risk from those gaps and the most likely dangers to avoid until choices improve. Shows how to balancing performance and progress against safety and control Presents measuring results and improving risk management Offers compensating controls and workarounds Shows how to leverage Big Data environments for security Organizations need to carefully manage risks to their data as more important decisions are based on it. If you're a manager, architect, or developer charged with a big data project, you should have a copy of The Realities of Securing Big Data.