1. A method for protecting a data processing system, the method comprising: launching an operating system (OS) during a boot process in a data processing system that supports a virtualization enabled (VE) operating mode; selecting a boot device for loading the OS; before selecting the boot device and before launching the OS, launching a trap agent; with the trap agent, intercepting an attempt to transition the data processing system to virtual machine (VM) operating mode after the OS has been launched; and in response to intercepting the attempt to transition the data processing system to VM operating mode, automatically determining whether a program that requested the transition is an authorized program.