The hidden danger of virtual desktops

Davey Winder
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 19:47

Your IT - Home IT

Do you operate a business? Do you know if your staff are running virtual desktops? Congratulations, and welcome to the minority...

A recent survey revealed that in the UK alone, 38 percent of businesses had already adopted virtualised infrastructures, and of those left some 52 percent were planning to do so.

Figures that should come as no great surprise when you have the likes of Microsoft encouraging you to 'Get Virtual Now' by providing a copy of Hyper-V Server 2008 absolutely free.

But beware, this growing popularity of virtualisation and the ease with which the tools to enable it can be downloaded and installed, brings with it the danger of end-users being able to create virtual environments to run unauthorised applications such as games and beta software.

Unfortunately, all too often and especially when IT budgets are being constrained and IT admin resources stretched, management of virtual desktops does not get given the priority within an organisation that it demands.

Indeed, a recent poll by security specialists Sophos suggests that more than half of all businesses do not know how many employees are running virtualisation software on their computers. A potentially huge problem, given that unmanaged virtual environments can open up a gaping hole in corporate security systems.

Richard Jacobs, chief technology officer at Sophos says "Virtualisation tools represent a black hole in many organisations' IT security" warning that if staff create hidden virtual desktops then "it's impossible to defend them against cyber attacks."

So while staff might just be trying to circumvent the ban on social networking in the workplace for example, they are actually opening up the door to corporate identity theft, data loss and brand damage.

The solution involves all the usual suspects: acceptable use policy education, virtual environment management and perhaps above all else an understanding of the very real dangers a virtual desktop can hold.