An Introduction to Network Intrusion Detection Systems

                                                                                         

Network intrusion detection systems identify security threats by detecting malicious activity such as scans, denial of service attacks and unauthorized access through the examination of network traffic. They are installed at strategic points on the network to monitor traffic to and from all hosts on the network. Unlike a packet filter or firewall, where a packet filtering decision is made on weather or not to allow traffic to continue, network intrusion detection systems do not interfere with network traffic in any way. In simple terms these systems could be described as a packet sniffer that also analyzes the captured packets.

In 1997 ISS released RealSecure, the first commercial network intrusion detection system which soon began to gain in popularity. The following year Cisco took an interest in this area of security by purchasing a security company called 'Wheel Group' in order to supply their customers with similar technologies. From that point, a host of companies took interest and became involved in developing and evolving commercial systems. Network intrusion detection systems are now among the most commonly used network based security tools.

If a networked computer system is not equipped with a network intrusion detection system the network administrators could be unaware of many attacks that take place and only become aware of a successful attack when it symptoms occurs. An example of such an attack could be where an unauthorized user retrieves password files from a login server without damaging the host. The attack may only become apparent when the intruder uses the password to gain root privileges, by which time the system security would be severely compromised. In an environment equipped with a network intrusion detection system, when a successful or unsuccessful attack occurs, a security alert is generated and information is collected which could be invaluable as evidence if legal action is to be taken or in preventing the attack from happening again.

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