Intrusion Detection System – How It Works

How an intrusion detection system works is somewhat complicated to understand. This, along with a network management system, is definitely something to look into if you have a business with a network. If you have ever worked in a tech department before, you are no doubt familiar with both these terms.

However, if you are not tech-savvy, and are just trying to educate yourself on what these systems are and how to find a good one, here is some basic info.

First of all, networks for companies today are getting more and more complicated all the time. Not only are they getting larger, but the tasks they are being asked to do is becoming more complex (VOIPs, social networking, etc).

Basically, what this means for your network is that your network is likely being taxed to the max with the everyday activities of your employees.

The problem is that each network is reliant on 1000s of different applications working well at the same time. If even a single one is not operating (or its’ performance is hindered) the entire network can be in jeopardy.

So that is where an IDS and network management system come into play. They are designed to ensure the network keeps operating well, and to spot attacks on it that would prevent it from running.

Each of them have different functions.

For instance, an IDS system is made to watch out for attacks to the network from hackers. They are put in strategic areas, and are designed to analyze the incoming packets of information onto the network. Many of them have a set of known variables that hackers use that it looks out for.

If it sees that in any of the packets coming into the network, it will prevent them from getting inside. It is essentially the security system for the network.

On the other hand, the network monitoring system is designed to watch over what goes on inside the network. Its’ job is not to prevent attacks from outsiders. Instead, it is to ensure that everything is operating smoothly on the network itself.

It does so by continually sending out HTTP requests for web pages. It watches how long those pages take to load, up-time, as well as other metrics. If a page either takes a long time to come up, times out, or simply does not work at all, then it will notify the system administrator that there is a problem within the network. It also continually tests functions within the email system to ensure that is working as well.

The bottom line is, an intrusion detection system as well as network management system are both important if you have a company that uses an type of network. Which one you get and how much you invest depends both on the size of your network, as well as what functions it performs. Hopefully this information on an intrusion detection system how it works will help you understand the process better.

Paul De Vizard is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about all things technical. This includes Network Monitoring Tools that provide Application Performance Monitoring for large corporations.

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