Managing digital threats is a growing priority for all businesses. Private network defense systems use diverse techniques to identify and prevent violations and recognition activities in a private ecosystem.
There are two types of system: Intrusion Detection (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention (IPS). They are quite similar, but each has their specific function. Understanding them is fundamental to decide which technology is a priority in the defending approach of your ecosystem.
The first thing to consider is the following: IPS and IDS technologies are crucial components of a multi-layered security approach. It is of great importance to underline this aspect, since in order to protect its ecosystems, most companies will need to use a variety of technologies, which combine to provide greater security to infrastructures.
IDS
IDS allows you to visualize traffic in different points of your network in detail, identifying different types of malicious activity. What does that mean? Whenever it identifies an event that violates the security policy, IDS analyzes and provides detailed logging of that event to the network administrator. This record will be used as evidence that will assist in decision making.
In other words, IDS gathers information that helps you better understand any breach events in the security policies designed to protect your infrastructure.
IPS
IPS is a control system, which has in the firewall its counterpoint. It works as it follows: the administrator sets up a series of traffic analysis rules that reject certain packages. When a request reaches your infrastructure, IPS checks all possible rules for a reason to reject that packet. In the absence of a rule to reject, IPS allows that traffic.
Firewall works the other way around: its rules are set to evaluate permissions for traffic. Then the product evaluates all the reasons to allow a packet on your network. In the absence of a rule that allows, then Firewall blocks that packet.
For an IPS system to work exceptionally, great configuration care is needed, combined with a comprehensive intelligence base that collects known threat records. In this way, the IPS will be effective to block any attack already studied by a security lab.
While this is the core application of an IPS, it is not the only way you can leverage the technology to protect your network. The settings of an IPS can be applied as a reinforcement of your company’s security policy, to analyze suspicious behavior or to prevent data leakage. As a control tool, you can create thousands of rules that apply to your needs.
Visualize and act
The fact that the two technologies are so similar is no coincidence. It’s a matter of configuration. Today, a good prevention system is not just applied to control. You can also get a detailed view of a security event. With the correct definition of security rules, you can monitor your network with both functions.
Avoiding traffic based on a rule or intelligence is as important as identify the effect of a breach event, since this information is critical to managing future events.
In a scenario of increasing threats visibility and control are key to greatly secure your perimeter.
With more than 5,000 clients, Blockbit is one of the leading manufacturers of cybersecurity solutions, empowering businesses to protect themselves against a wide range of threats, vulnerabilities, and cyberattacks, whether internal or external, generic or specific.