UK businesses are failing to upgrade their security posture to manage virtualised environments

New research released by Trend Micro, the global leader in cloud security, shows that almost half (48 per cent) of UK organisations believe that virtualised environments need more security as they introduce new risks. Yet despite these findings, more than eight in ten (85 per cent) of organisations are leaving their IT infrastructure open to threats by using the same security technology as they were in their physical computing environments.

Businesses struggle to keep virtualised environments secure
The study conducted by Trend Micro in collaboration with Vanson Bourne, found that 93 per cent of organisations think virtualisation has contributed to the complexity of IT infrastructure with 92 per cent struggling to keep their systems secure. With only one in ten (11%) organisations suggesting their security systems are completely up-to-date, it is not surprising that two thirds of organisations admitted to having experienced a security breach in recent months. Alarmingly, only about half (52%) of these breaches were discovered by internal security monitoring tools with just under half (48%) of organisations being alerted by systems outage, a third party or by accident.

“Virtualisation security is still being viewed as an afterthought as businesses ‘make do’ with the same security policies, process and tools they would use in a physical environment. This approach is leaving organisations open to the risk of cyber-attack as they fail to realise that a new security mind-set is required,” said Michael Darlington, Technical Director at Trend Micro. “In a dynamic virtual network, security should be built in from the outset instead of being treated as a bolt-on. IT transformation is at its most impactful when security and virtualisation experts work together to create a solution that reduces cost and improves productivity whilst managing risk.”

Security teams need more involvement in the virtualisation roadmap
British businesses recognise the importance of factoring security into their virtualisation roadmap with 95 per cent stating that security is an integral part of moving to a virtualised environment. However, the majority of organisations are not acting on this belief; 59 per cent admit to not consulting security teams throughout virtualisation deployments. This failure to adopt a new security mind-set for virtualised environments is leaving businesses open to risk with two thirds having experienced a security breach in the last five years. More than nine in 10 businesses remain concerned that they will fall victim to future security breaches.

Virtualisation in the cloud
Over two in five (44 per cent) of organisations with a virtualised environment either use or plan to use an Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider, with the majority (61 per cent) of organisations purchasing security as part of the service. Though half address the security of these services by deploying the same controls as used in their data centre. Almost four in ten (39%) of those using IaaS believe that its use has made managing IT security more complex.

“Virtualisation continues to be adopted at a rapid pace and it seems that IT teams are struggling to keep up with the demands of the business, as IT infrastructure becomes more complex,” said Darlington. “However, it is important to note that virtualised environments can be as secure if not more secure than physical environments. By adopting a new mind-set and recognising the security posture needs to change in line with IT environments, British businesses will be well placed to realise the benefits of virtualisation without compromising on security.”