RSA: IBM's project Phantom to lock down virtual machines
IDG News Service - IBM researchers are developing new attack prevention technology for the company's virtualization products.
The company is set to detail the new project, code-named Phantom, at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Tuesday.
Phantom is a joint effort between IBM's X-Force threat analysis team and the company's research division. It aims to lock down the hypervisor software that IBM systems use to manage virtual machines. "What we're doing through Phantom is we're implementing an [intrusion-prevention system] -- an IPS that sits at the hypervisor layer," said Kris Lovejoy, director of strategy for IBM corporate security.
IPS systems are designed to stop computer attacks as they occur, by inspecting network traffic and figuring out whether or not it is malicious.
IBM invented the concept of a hypervisor and has been selling it as part of its mainframe computers, where it could run more than one copy of the operating system at the same time. In recent years, this type of virtualization software has been promoted on Unix and PC systems as a way for corporate users to squeeze more performance out of their servers.
The problem of securing these virtualized systems promises to be one of the hot topics at this week's conference, which is the largest annual event in the security industry.
IBM researchers have already worked on ways to secure the hypervisor, but with Phantom they will be using technology acquired in IBM's 2006 purchase of Internet Security Systems, a maker of IPS devices.
The researchers are also building tools that can lock down the hypervisor itself, Lovejoy added. "The hypervisor layer was built for optimum performance, not necessarily effective security," she said. "Our customers are just looking for assurance that their virtualized infrastructure is not going to be the single point of failure."
How long those customers will have to wait before they can take advantage of this new technology is unclear. Phantom is a research project and no timeline has been set for supporting it on IBM's servers, Lovejoy said.
Reprinted with permission from
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.
IBM
Additional Resources



Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.
White Papers & Webcasts
Uncover the Benefits of Virtualization
Download this Whitepaper Now!
Effectively Implementing Datacenter Automation
Effectively select and deploy the best datacenter automation solution today!
Global Distributed Service in the Cloud with F5 and VMware
Learn how F5 and VMware help you orchestrate and deliver access to services in the cloud by providing a robust Application Delivery Networking...
Efficient Root-cause Analysis in the face of Datacenter Complexity
Isolating Virtualization and n-Tier Application Issues, Measuring Success, Assessing Business Impact, and Enabling Technologies
Optimize VMware View VDI Deployments with F5
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffi c Manager optimizes VMware View deployments between offi ces to create a user experience on par with local desktops.
XenApp Extends Virtualized Application Delivery
Download this webcast to learn how to accelerate delivery of virtualized applications and streamline management.
Connecting to the Cloud with F5 and VMware VMotion
F5 and VMware partner to enable live application and storage migrations between datacenters and clouds, over short or long distances.
Rethinking Storage for Server Virtualization Environments - HP and Forrester Pre-recorded Webcast
Download this on-demand webcast today!
ROI of Application Delivery in Virtualized Environments
Learn how load balancing Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) can substantially reduce expenses in traditional and virtualized architectures with a fast ROI.
Horror stories: Managing IT Across Multiple Locations
How one extra sharp IT manager eliminates daily agony, hassle and repetition.


