Securing the Virtual Environment, Included DVD: How to Defend the Enterprise Against Attack - Softcover

Ottenheimer, Davi; Wallace, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118155483 ISBN 13: 9781118155486

Publisher: Wiley, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Davi Ottenheimer is president of flyingpenguin and a security/compliance consultant to VMware. He was previously responsible for security at Barclays Global Investors and at Yahoo! He also has helped secure Cisco, U.S. DoD, IBM, Intel, State Farm, and the University of California. Matthew Wallace is Director of Product Development at ViaWest, and formerly an architect at VMware and was the founding engineer of Exodus Communications' Managed Security Services group.

From the Back Cover

Defend your virtual environment from attacks

Your virtual environment might be a prime target for hackers and attackers who want to steal data or exploit your resources. This book arms you with the knowledge and tools to safeguard your virtual and cloud environments against external and internal threats. You'll gain insight into how to avoid denial of service, log and audit activity, protect virtual networks from eavesdroppers, and harden virtual servers. If your job involves protecting assets in virtual and cloud environments, this book will be invaluable to you.

• Perform vulnerability assessments of your virtual environment to uncover security weaknesses

• Learn how attacks in a virtual model differ from traditional computing models and how to best use technology and processes to defend yourself

• Learn how attackers use and abuse APIs to manipulate and gain entry to virtual environments

• Understand the risks of Software as a Service and how to get the protection you must have

• Be ready for audits by ensuring that your virtual and cloud environments comply with standards and regulations such as PCI DSS and ISO 27001

• Build your own low-budget virtualized test lab for hands-on evaluation of attacks and to practice prevention and response

ON THE DVD

Use the files on the DVD to follow along with the hands-on examples, or use them as the basis for your own code. Using the code and the book, you can

• Conduct a "hypervisor escape", breaking out of a virtual machine into the host system

• Load the included, ready-made penetration testing virtual machine—which is preloaded with tools such as nmap, ettercap, the Open VAS vulnerability scanner, and more—directly into your virtual environment

• Test the security posture of your Xen or VMware environment using automated scripts that peek at virtual disks and copy or modify virtual machines

• See the code used for hands-on exercises in the book that audit or attack virtual environments

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118155483
• ISBN 13: 9781118155486
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456