A hybrid virtualised security platform provides robust security for cloud environments, while maintaining the resource efficiency of virtualised environments, says cyber intrusion detection and prevention giant Kaspersky Lab European product marketing manager Dave Messett.

Kaspersky Lab’s cyber security platform, specifically designed for virtualised environments, closes the vulnerabilities of virtualised systems, with the efficiency of these systems being maintained by deploying an antivirus program on the host and resource-light protection agents on each virtual machine.

The antivirus program running on the host performs the file scanning process and then shares the cache information with the virtual machines. Any of the previously scanned files requested by the virtual machines are then passed through as clean and secure files. The agents running on the virtual machines focus on application control, web filtering and device control to detect and prevent intrusions during use, he explains.

This centralised scanning of files and the central management of the agents on the virtual machines reduce the resource intensity of the boot-up processes of virtual environments, while ensuring heightened security on the host and on the virtual machines running on the server.

“Virtualised desktops are designed to make programs and applications run as if they were running on a normal physical device, which means that malware and viruses will also function normally. “The user remains the most significant vulnerability of any antivirus system, and this hybrid, light-agent system aims to prevent intrusions of individual virtual machines.”

Even in virtualised environments in which each virtual machine is stopped at night and relaunched from a fresh copy the following morning, the malware can function on the virtual desktop while it is operational. Therefore, the vulnerability window is during the period when such systems are being used.

This light agent-based solution for securing virtual environments is also managed from the Kaspersky Lab security management platform – a central control platform that companies use to manage their devices and network security, notes Messett.

Kaspersky Lab’s Light Agent solution supports VMware, Citrix and Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualised environments.