What is an Intrusion Detection System (IDS)?
IDS or Intrusion Detection System is an IT solution for monitoring threats in the cyberspace. It comes as an application or an actual appliance detecting threats and suspecting activities as potential network intrusions. This security solution works by analyzing the traffic and finding alarming patterns that could indicate a cyberattack is taking place. There are different IDS solutions based on the cyber security requirements of the IT services provider and the threat detection approach they apply to monitor their hardware infrastructure. The two most common detection solutions that are used by cloud providers to identify threats effectively are signature-based IDS and anomaly-based IDS which detect potential cyber threats by using different traffic indicators. The signature-based one recognizes threats by their unique code while anomaly-based IT solutions use a model recognizing the “normal” behavior of a system and differentiate it from a suspected one.
Why is an IDS important for your IT security?
IDS can detect more and less common malicious attacks like phishing scams, inviting users to click on a harmful link with malicious malware. It is designed for the sole purpose of detecting potential threats by generating an alert to the central IT teams and giving them better visibility of the traffic and all the potential incidents that may occur. IDS alone needs a proactive response and resolutions by the internal IT departments in order to work effectively against potential cyberattacks.
What is an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)?
Unlike IDS, IPS is a security solution that does not work by passively monitoring the network traffic and creating an alert to potential threats but also by actively preventing the systems from cyber attacks. It is usually placed behind the firewall security system and it acts as a medium between the source of the threat and the destination so that when an incident is identified, the prevention system will block all traffic from the suspicious source. Similar to IDS, IPS is designed to work by identifying threats by the monitoring features of the network or the host. It also using methods like signature-based and anomaly-based detection to recognize unusual traffic behavior.
Why is an IPS important for your IT security?
While attacks in cyberspace are evolving to be faster and more complex, IPS can be a useful IT solution to have if you want to reduce the potential damage to a minimum. Some newly emerging malicious attacks evade the passive monitoring systems but they get caught and remediated by IPS with a traffic block. This security solution is perfect for environments like virtual desktops where an intrusion may have a detrimental impact on the company data, accessed via an unprotected public or private network. IPS is quite effective at identifying problems that are a result of human error and are just as common as malicious cyber attacks.
Why do you need both IDS and IPS?
Both threat detection systems are designed to protect the IT infrastructure of organizations and services providers like we-IT against new and old cyber threats. Nevertheless, only IPS can provide control and prevention from cyberattacks while IDS alone can only monitor the traffic patterns and notify. This is why having IDS and IPS working together is the best approach to your system security. Deploying both of these solutions increases the level of data security by giving you a close look at your traffic patterns and active protection of your network during malicious attacks.
Infrastructure monitoring and network security are two terms that often go hand in hand when speaking about cybercrime and loss of data protection. If you are choosing a cloud desktop provider or you are just looking for an IT system that will effectively prevent threats, you are best to consider having both of these solutions for the best results!
