Hear two security experts, Gene Kim from Tripwire and Mike Poor from Intelguardians, discuss virtualization security risks, as well as how to mitigate them. Topics addressed in this webcast will focus on VMware ESX, but can be used in any virtual computing environments.

The need for increased computing agility, coupled with the increasing cost and complexity of IT systems, have driven the rapid adoption of virtualization technologies. While virtualization has operational and economic rewards, the reality is that when information security controls are improperly implemented or neglected in virtualized environments, real security risks and exposures can be created faster than ever. The good news is that information security can take some practical steps right away to limit operational and security risks.

Dan Blanchard,

Paul Poppleton, Senior Staff Engineer with Qualcomm

Paul has working with virtual infrastructure since Qualcomm began adopting the technology six years ago. He has in-depth experience with the deployment, operation and management of some 4,000 virtual servers and related systems, storage and I/O hardware.

Jay Corn, Senior Manager, Accenture.

Jay is the North American lead for Accenture’s Infrastructure Automation initiatives as well as the global co-lead for Accenture’s Utility Computing and Virtualization practices. Jay’s background includes both infrastructure consulting as well as application development/deployment. Jay has extensive experience with program delivery for Fortune 100 clients across data center provisioning and rationalization, server/storage consolidation, system integration, and custom application development.

Jack Wilson

Enterprise Architect – Assistant Vice President
Amerisure Mutual Insurance Company

Mr. Wilson has been in the IT industry for 30 years and has owned his own consulting firm as well as a being a principal at Ernest & Young. His experience has included a number of companies and has spanned the insurance, finance, transportation, software and health industries in the United States and Europe. The depth of his experience includes system development, database administration and for the last decade architectural strategy, design and implementation.

Mr. Wilson started with Amerisure Insurance in 2004 as their first Enterprise Architect and has acted as a change agent in that organization to bring about a significant transformation, moving the company forward with a comprehensive virtualization strategy. The early and tangible success of these efforts have created a momentum for driving this strategy broader and deeper across the organization.   

Mike Poor is a founder and Senior Security Analyst with Intelguardians. Mike conducts forensic analysis, penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, security audits and architecture reviews. His primary job focus however is in intrusion detection, response, and mitigation. Mike is an author and editor of the international best seller “Snort 2.1” book from Syngress, and is a Handler for the Internet Storm Center. Mike teaches Intrusion Detection for the SANS Institute and has supported Intrusion Detection and Incident Response teams for the military, and has worked for Sourcefire as a research engineer, and for the SANS Institute leading their Intrusion Analysis Team.

Gene Kim is the CTO and founder of Tripwire, Inc. In 1992, he co-authored Tripwire while at Purdue University with Dr. Gene Spafford. In 2004, he wrote the Visible Ops Handbook and co-founded the IT Process Institute, dedicated to research, benchmarking and developing prescriptive guidance for IT operations and security management and auditors. In 2003, was named by InfoWorld as one of the “Four Up and Coming CTOs to Watch" and in 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to their “40 Innovative IT People Under The Age Of 40” list.

Scot Finnie is Editor in Chief of Computerworld. Finnie is an award-winning journalist who has nearly 25 years experience as a magazine and online editor and writer covering computers and IT.