A distributed and coordinated security system providing intrusion-detection and intrusion-prevention for the virtual machines (VMs) in a virtual server is described. The virtualization platform of the virtual server is enhanced with networking drivers that provide a “fast path” firewall function for pre-configured guest VMs that already have dedicated deep packet inspection security agents installed. A separate security VM is deployed to provide virtual security agents providing deep packet inspection for non pre-configured guest VMs. The network drivers are then configured to intercept the data traffic of these guest VMs and route it through their corresponding virtual security agents, thus providing a “slow-path” for intrusion detection and prevention.