IDS vs IPS: Everything To Know In 3 Easy Points

Introduction

As the world is evolving and continuously changing, the systems and technologies are also developing. Each day, each company is coming up with one new technology or the other. Competition in the market is increasing. However, some organizations may face losses in monetary terms, but they might face data losses as well. The business leaders or owners are very well aware of the lurking threat that persists. Hence these business owners must learn to address the real risk of data loss. Let us see what the differences between IDS vs IPS are.

According to a recent study, government bodies have suggested using security practices by all the organizations. Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System have been recognized as the technologies which are crucial to adapt and get started on with these new systems of control.

1. What is IDS and IPS? 
2. How do an IDS and IPS work? 
3. Difference between IDS and IPS

1. What is IDS and IPS?

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS)is referred to as a network security technology that was actually built to trace and detect any animosity against any specific application or computer, for that matter. It is a system that detects network traffic if they sense any suspicious activity is taking place. An IDS is a system that scans an entire network and a system to detect any activity that can be harmful or is policy breaching.

Intrusion Detection System is also very much disposed to alarms that can be false alarms. Therefore, the entire organization using IDS must check their IDS products when IDS is being installed into the system or computer. In other words, IDS must be set up properly so that they can scan and detect what absolutely normal traffic on the network must look like when it is compared to any malicious content. 

An Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), on the other hand, refers to a kind of network security or threat prevention that scan the entire network and the network traffic to scan, detect, and then prevent the malicious contents from harming the system. Hence, the Intrusion Prevention System’s main role is to detect any activity that is not normal and then prevent them from causing any further damage to the network, the system, or the computer.

What the IPS does then is to report such abnormalities to the administrators and then take actions to prevent the malicious contents from causing further damage, such as closing or blocking all the access points, as well as configuring firewalls to prevent any attacks shortly. 

2. How do an IDS and IPS work? 

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS)functions straightforwardly. These systems are basically used to detect or scan any anomalies, the objective being to catch hackers so that they can cause no further damage to the system or any network. IDS can be of two types: they can either be network-based, or they can be host-based. A network-based intrusion detection system is something that is installed on the network, whereas host-based intrusion detection is something that is installed in the computer of the clients.

To prevent any unauthorized or abnormal access to the system of networks, the IDS is the only solution. It helps to scan, detect, and then alert of the abnormal or malicious activities in the network. Basically, the IDS’s main function is to scan for malicious contents or abnormal digressions from the already existing set of norms. 

TheIntrusion Prevention System is referred to as a network security tool or a threat prevention tool. Its function is to scan for any malicious content or activity, record all the potential threats, report them to the administration, and then take up actions against those abnormal activities. It can cause no further damage to the network.

It can also be used in a secure environment by the network of systems. The IPS works by scanning all the available network traffic with the help of an IPS tool. Now what this IPS tool does is that it works as a means of communication between the firewall and the entire network to prevent malicious traffic from causing damage to the network. 

3. Difference between IDS and IPS

Both IDS and IPS are systems that can detect all the potential threats and then alert the administrators of the harmful, malicious contents lurking about in the system, which can cause immense damage to the network by the loss of essential data.

There can be many differences between the Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System. However, the essential points of difference remain the same. IDS can only detect malicious contents and then can alert the network of the threat, whereas IPS can also take actions against them by preventing them from causing any further damage to the network.

IDS are not something that is in line, so traffic would not be a problem as the traffic does not require flowing through it. But in the case of IPS, traffic does flow through it. Another central point that causes all the difference is that in the case of IDS, the false positives will only cause alarms, whereas, in the case of IPS, these false positives could result in loss of essential data or information, as well as the functions.

Conclusion

These Intrusion Systems serves business purposes as it is beneficial for security purposes. It is because of these systems that all the organizations across the globe are secured today. All the official and important data or information are entirely secured with the usage of both the Intrusion Detection System as well as the Intrusion Prevention System. Both these systems can provide detailed or elaborate data that is gathered from the network and then scans through these data to detect any malicious content. These data, in turn, could be used for network forensics in case the damage has already been done.

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