An Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is a network security technology designed to detect and prevent identified threats. IPSs are placed inline (directly in the path of network traffic) to actively analyze and take automated actions on all traffic flows entering and leaving a network. Unlike its predecessor, the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), which only detects and alerts on potential network threats, an IPS has the capability to block or mitigate such threats in real-time without human intervention.
IPS technologies use various methods to detect threats, including signature-based detection (matching traffic to known threat signatures), anomaly-based detection (identifying deviations from a baseline of normal network activity), and policy-based detection (blocking traffic that violates security policies). Upon detecting a potential threat, an IPS can take several actions, such as blocking traffic from the source IP address, closing connection sessions, or alerting administrators.
Deployment of an IPS can be network-based (NIPS) to protect an entire network, or host-based (HIPS) to protect individual devices. Key benefits of implementing an IPS include:
- Protecting against known and unknown vulnerabilities by blocking exploits in real-time.
- Enforcing network policies and compliance requirements.
- Reducing the risk of business disruptions and data breaches.
However, IPS solutions also face challenges, such as the need for frequent updates to threat databases, the potential for false positives (legitimate traffic mistakenly blocked as threats), and the requirement for careful tuning to balance security and network performance.
As part of a comprehensive security strategy, an IPS works alongside other security measures, such as firewalls, malware scanners, and data loss prevention (DLP) systems, to provide layered defense against a wide range of cyber threats.