SANS Insitute launches its first European virtualisation security course

Ex-RAF top penetration tester to head-up the course

SANS virtualisation security course concentrates on most popular environment - VMware

Leading security organisation 'The System Administration, Networking, and Security (SANS) Institute' is to offer the first European session of its new Virtualisation Security Fundamentals at a London SANS event in November.

Expected to see high levels of early registration, the course aims to help companies that have virtualised their operating systems and applications but have problems securing these virtualised systems.

Former head of RAF penetration testing Steve Armstrong who will teach the course said: "setting up virtual systems is incredibly easy, but IT admins under pressure to deploy new services may overlook many security basics."

"The consolidation of say 10 servers down to just two virtualised machiness needs the same basic understanding of good security practice as is required in the physical world,” he said.

"The course is structured to deliver hands on experience and by the end of the session, students will have built and attacked a complete virtual infrastructure," he added.

Armstrong estimates less than one per cent of system administrators tasked with setting up these environments have had any formal training in security best practice in a virtualised world.

“The differences are subtle but considerable, especially in areas such as Virtual Switch Security Policies and Virtualisation Risk Assessment," he added.

Attendees will learn virtualisation security fundamentals, look at known attacks and threats, theoretical attack methods, and numerous real-world examples.

The course will focus on VMware's vSphere which the literature describes as the most popular enterprise server virtualisation product.

Attendees will learn about locking down ESX and ESXi servers and the vCenter management server, as well as best practices for securing the virtual machine guests that reside on ESX and ESXi platforms.

SANS London 2010 will take place at the ExCeL London Exhibition & Conference Centre from 27 November to 6 December.