Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): Everything You Need to Know

Over the past decade, it has become incredibly easy to create and maintain a website. Every day, thousands of new websites are being brought to the forefront, making merchants and service providers well-equipped than ever. However, the number and intensity of security issues have also increased in the same period. Due to this fact alone, thousands of cyberattacks are targeting website owners.

In other words, just like you have to protect your computer from viruses, spyware, and other malware, you need to stop intruders from making their way into your website. Thankfully, this is where Intrusion Detection Systems come to play. And in this article, we have covered almost everything you need to know about IDS and how useful they are.

What Is an Intrusion Detection System?

An Intrusion Detection System, commonly referred to as IDS, is a compilation of services that can potentially keep your network away from attackers and intruders. As the name says, the technology used on IDS would be able to understand if any part of your network has been breached. If that is the case, it will notify you so that you can take the necessary action.

In most cases, once the IDS notify you about the problem, you’ll have to do a complete security checkup of your internal and external networks to find the breach point. Only then will you be able to run some kind of anti-intrusion protection. Of course, as you can guess, you would need a professional security team to do this.

How Does an Intrusion Detection System Work?

Because the IDS is supposed to be a passive surface, you won’t probably see that the program is working. It will, however, be running in the background and monitoring the traffic that comes to and goes from the web server or the network in general. As long as the traffic log looks general, the IDS would stay silent. However, when an anomaly appears, the IDS system would notify the system admins, who have to follow up.

However, the core functions of the IDS may vary depending on the service that you have chosen. If you pick an advanced Intrusion Detection System and the help of services from teams like clearnetwork.com, you’d not have to worry about network security ever again. By integrating the IDS with other diagnostic tools and anti-malware systems, these teams can take the right action before the intrusion starts its work.

Although the specifics of how an IDS functions change based on many aspects, an IDS remains an important component of a secure network.

How Do I Choose the Right IDS?

It must be clear to you by now that choosing the wrong IDS can be problematic. If the Intrusion Detection System fails to do its job, there is no point in having the best security team. In a matter of seconds, the hacker or attacker would establish their domination on your network, which is probably the end of things as you’d know them.

Therefore, you should consider the various aspects of your network before choosing an IDS service. First of all, you have to consider the platform you are running your network on since the options vary according to platforms like Windows, Linux, and some managed stuff. You should also consider the volume and sensitivity of the things you store on the network.

For instance, even if you have a low amount of regular traffic, you cannot compromise the quality of the IDS if your servers have to deal with sensitive user-data or something. If the past stories from the cyber-security world have told us anything, it’s that you can never underestimate the breadth of an attack. So, you should better fix the problem before it starts affecting you.

Types of Intrusion Detection Systems

Depending on the platform and the level of security options you need, you can find various IDS services in the market. Since it is impractical to list all those pointers, we will list the top categories you need to keep in mind.

• Network Intrusion Detection System, which offers protection to all devices on the network
• Host Intrusion Detection System is designed to work on specific devices and hosts on the network
• Protocol-based Intrusion Detection System will check for attacks based on HTTPS and other protocols
• Application Protocol-based Intrusion Detection System will monitor protocols specific to applications
• Hybrid IDS combines the best part of all these services, offering a comprehensive line of detection of threats.

To Conclude

We hope we have provided everything you should know about Intrusion Detection Systems from a website owner’s perspective. Because these things are not something you should second-guess, you must get a trained security team to help you implement and keep track of the IDS and the follow-up procedure in case of an attack.