Virtualization Security Threats

As virtualization technology gains in popularity, it may bring with it new risks, said Don Simard, commercial solutions director at the U.S. National Security Agency, the electronic intelligence and cryptographic agency once so secret its very existence was a secret.

At the same time, virtualization technology may bring new protections, he noted.

One of the NSA's roles is to work with technology providers to help them make their wares more secure, both to help government agencies using them and to reduce threats that could affect the commercial sector and thus the national economy. Sometimes, the NSA also wants to ensure it has back-door access to commercial systems.

In the case of virtualization, the NSA has worked with EMC's VMware unit, IBM, AMD, Trusted Computing Group, and others for several years to identify potential threats and suggest workarounds. Later this year, chips from AMD and Intel will include technology that the NSA has helped develop.