Limiting information leakage and piracy due to virtual machine cloning

A method for detecting a cloned virtual machine instance, the method comprising:

• generating a unique identifier for each virtual machine in a network;
• transmitting an identifier associated with a given virtual machine from an agent embedded in the virtual machine akin to a malware to a detection entity in the network;
• determining whether the identifier is one of the generated unique identifiers or whether the identifier is a clone of an identifier associated with a separate virtual machine in the network;
• and
• initiating at least one remedial action with the agent embedded in the virtual machine if the identifier is determined to be a clone of an identifier associated with a separate virtual machine in the network;
• wherein at least one of said generating, said transmitting, said determining and said initiating is carried out by a computer device.