Updated March 18, 2023
Introduction to Types of Intrusion Prevention System
The intrusion detection system can be defined as a tool deployed in at the interface between the public network(interwork) and the private network to prevent the intrusion of malicious network packets. As the name states, the purpose of the existence of this tool is to ensure that the packets with malicious signature should not be allowed to enter the private network as they can lead to harm to the internet if entertained. The IPS tools are amply capable of being integrated with other tools that are used in network security to prevent attacks in-network level. In this topic, we are going to learn about Types of Intrusion Prevention System.
Types of Intrusion Prevention System
The intrusion prevention system is not limited to scanning the network packets at entry-level only but also to encounter the private network’s malicious activity.
Based on the functionality of the IPS, they are divided into various types that are mentioned below:
1. Host-based intrusion prevention system
It can be defined as the type of intrusion prevention system which operates on a single host. This kind of IPS aims to make sure that no malicious activity should happen in the internal network. Whenever the IPS detects any activity internally that has an abnormal signature, the IPS scans the network to get more details about the activity, and this way, it prevents any malicious activity from happening in that particular host. The main feature of this kind of IPS is that it never takes care of the entire network, but the single host in which it is deployed keeps it very secure and entirely protected from all the attacks that could happen through the network layer.
2. Wireless intrusion prevention system
It can be considered as the other type of intrusion detection system which operates over the wireless network. This kind of IPS is deployed to monitor malicious activity in the wireless network. All the packets moving within the wireless network are being checked or monitored by this kind of IPS with the help of signatures.
If any packet is found for which the IPS has the mark of malicious signature, the IPS will prevent the packet from entering further into the network. It is one of the optimal kinds of IPS these days; wireless networks are used more often than the LAN-based network. It makes the network ample secure and prevents all the harmful network packet from making any change in the existing environment.
3. Network-based intrusion prevention system
This can be considered as the other kind of IPS that is deployed in the network in order to prevent malicious activities. The purpose of this IPS to monitor or keep a check on the entire network. Any malicious activity detected in the entire network can be prevented by using this kind of IPS.
This system can be integrated with other network scanning tools like Nexpose, and so on. As the outcome, the vulnerabilities detected by those tools will also be considered by this kind of IPS, and if any attack is encountered against the vulnerabilities that are witnesses by the network scanning tool, in that case, this IPS will defend the system even if the patch for that vulnerability is not available.
4. Network behaviour analysis
As the name states, this kind of IPS is used to understand the network’s behaviour, and all the network moving throughout the network remains in sustain surveillance of this system. Anytime the system detects the packets with malicious signature, the IPS makes sure to block the packet so that it could not lead to harm to the application.
This kind of IPS’ main purpose is to ensure that no malicious packets should be drafted and transmitted through the internal network. The organizations using this type of IPS always remain protected against attacks like DOS (Denial of Service) or any privacy violation-based attack.
It is also essential to know that IPS works in conjunction with an intrusion detection system(IDS). The role of IDS is to detect the malicious packet, while the role of IPS is to make sure that the malicious packets are being destroyed or should be blocked from execution. The IPS works either by detecting and preventing the packets based on the signature or statistical anomaly.
There is a sheer difference between working through both of the approaches. The detection that is being done by signature makes sure that the signature of the packets that are present in the database of the IPS will get detected, while when we talk about detecting the data through a statistical anomaly, it checks the packet against the defined deadline. Any packet that shows any activity defined under the deadline will raise the alarm and get blocked by the IPS.
SolarWinds Log & Event Manager, Splunk, sagan, OSSEC are some of the popular IPS that works on an AI platform. The artificial intelligence-based platforms allow the administrators to ensure malicious activities very efficiently that are occurring in the network. All the IPS has to be deployed as per their type. For instance, the host-based IPS should only be deployed in a single system while the network-based IPS works fine for the entire network.
All the other tools used to protect the network against attacks can be integrated with this system to monitor the network more effectively. More specifically, the tools that scan the network or endorses the network scanning should have to be integrated with this system to enhance its performance.
Conclusion
The intrusion detection system is one of the strongest pillars of network security. It enables the organization to stay protected against the attacks that lead to compromise network security. The mechanism to support integration with other network security based tools makes it more effective to detect malicious traffic. With the enhancement in technology, the IPS tools are being developed by keeping AI in mind, which plays a vital role in extending the tool’s features.
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