What is IDS?

Introduction to IDS (Intrusion Detection System)

IDS stands for Intrusion Detection System, which is a device or an application used to do the surveillance of networks or systems for any insecure activity. A report is made that is sent to the administrator by the application, or the information is collected and stored in the event management system. There are Active and Passive IDS and Network and Host IDS. IDS mainly monitors network traffic so that malicious activity can be spotted easily. It scans the network or the system to check the policy breaching and informs the concerned authorities or applications.

Classification of IDS ( Intrusion Detection System )

IDS is classified into two types:

• HIDS ( Host Intrusion Detection System )
• NIDS ( Network Intrusion Detection System )

HIDS (Host Intrusion Detection System)

Host intrusion detection (HIDS) systems run on different hosts or network devices. A HIDS tracks only incoming and outgoing network packets and alerts the administrator to unusual or malicious behavior. It will take a photo of the current system files and compare them to the previous image. When device files have been changed or removed, an alert will be forwarded to the administrator for review. You can see an example of the use of HIDS on mission-critical systems that will not alter their configuration.

NIDS (Network Intrusion Detection System)

Network intrusion detection (NIDS) systems are set up within the network at a specified point to monitor traffic from all network devices. It monitors the traffic passing through the whole subnet and corresponds with the traffic passed onto the subnet to obtain known attacks. When an attack has been detected, or unusual activity has been observed, an administrator may be alerted. An example of a NIDS is the one on the firewall subnet to test if somebody is trying to crack the firewall.

Why do you need Network Intrusion Detection Systems?

No firewall is fully Secure, and no network is insufficient. Attackers are constantly developing new feats and techniques to prevent your defenses. Most attacks use other social engineering or malware to obtain user credentials that provide them with network and information access. A network intrusion system (NIDS) that allows you to detect and respond to malicious traffic is critical to network security. An intrusion detection system’s primary objective is to ensure that IT professionals are informed of a possible attack or a network invasion. The inbound and outbound traffic on the network and data traversing between devices in the network is controlled by the NIDS system (Network Intrusion Detection System).

Actions on IDS Alerts for Network

Network IDS is critical for comprehensive security, but you must be mindful of several things to effectively use NIDS. It is important if IT personnel with the knowledge and abilities to make choices and take the actions required on the basis of network notified IDSs, for traffic monitoring and evaluating for unusual or potentially malicious activities.

• False Positive: Threat detection based on the signature is usually accurate, but you may encounter fake positive effects when it comes to unusual detection and the recognition of potentially suspicious or malicious activity. A false positive is if the IDS network flags malicious normal activities or legitimate traffic. The program must be focused on how regular transport looks and must be properly calibrated to ignore legal or approved traffic Intrusion detection.
• False Negative: On the other hand, You also run the risk of not detecting suspicious or malicious activity 100 percent of the time. It concerns, in particular zero-day, or emerging threats, based on new vulnerabilities and IDS unknown attack techniques.
• Security Experts: In addition to fake negative and false positive changes, the biggest challenge with a network IDS can be the sheer volume of warnings. One of the key elements of the successful use of the network intrusion detection system is to ensure that IT security staff is trained and able to eliminate false alarms and recognize suspicious or malicious traffic that IDS may have failed to provide. The security operation center (SOC) should include security experts who can track and analyze warnings and log data to identify potential attacks, prioritize them, and take the appropriate action to block traffic or avoid the attack.

This has been a guide to What is IDS? Here we discuss the introduction, classification, actions, and why do we need network IDS? You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

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