What Is An Intrusion Detection System And How Can It Help Your Network?

There are many layers of security when you are talking about a corporate network. When you are at home the amount of security that you use is usually limited to a firewall on your router and an antivirus program running on your system but when you are at work the level of security that is used must be higher.

If someone is able to get into your system then not only will the company be exposed but their customers could be too. So this is why it takes special technology to make sure that everything is secured.



One of the pieces of technology that is used is called an IDS and it goes a long way in helping to keep the bad guys out of your system. The letters IDS stand for Intrusion Detection System. It is a machine that is used as a monitor for your network.

As an antivirus program is used to detect malicious software that has been loaded into your computer, an IDS is looking for strange activity that may be happening on the network. For example, if you have someone or something trying to access a certain port that doesn’t have clearance on the corporate network then it might start to set off alarms with the IDS. This makes sure that you are able to detect if something is not right with the network long before it becomes a serious problem. Now you will be able to go check the system out and report if everything is fine or not.


There are two types of IDS systems that are available to be used.

One is called a NIDS, which stands for a Network Intrusion Detection System. This machine will analyze the network mostly and check to see if anything is wrong on it.

The other type of IDS is called HIDS and it stands for Host Intrusion Detection System. It will look at the operating systems of the network and make sure that no-one has been able to compromise them.

These two systems can work separately if required but it is best to have them work in tandem.

Even though an IDS is a great machine to have on your network there are still a lot of events that are able to get by the system. You cannot have an IDS system alone on the network and think that you are going to be protected. The only thing that an IDS can pick up is what it already knows. This means that if the method of attack is new or violates a part of the network that the IDS doesn’t monitor then the attackers will be able to get away with it.

So you must make sure that your IDS is backed up with other countermeasures that will help protect your network from black hat hackers.

An IDS is invaluable to your corporate network. Make sure that you have one to help protect it.

About Lee Munson


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