Table of Contents
IPS and IDS are security tools used to detect and respond to malicious activities. IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) monitors network traffic and actively blocks threats in real time. While, IDS (Intrusion Detection System) monitors and alerts on suspicious activity but does not block it. In this blog, we discuss the differences between two security tools in detail.
What is IPS
IPS or Intrusion Prevention System is a system which inspects traffic flowing through the network and blocks or else remediates flows with malicious traffic. IPS usually uses a combination of traffic and file signatures and heuristic analysis of flows.
Having said that, you will find solutions with both capabilities of IDS and IPS built-in. IDS can be used initially to see how the system behaves without actually blocking anything.
Then once fine-tuned IPS can be turned on and the system can be deployed inline to provide full protection.
What is IDS
IDS or Intrusion Detection System is a system similar to IPS but does not affect flows in any way – only logs or alerts on malicious traffic to the central management system.
Comparison: IPS and IDS
Now that we have a basic understanding of IDS and IPS, let’s enumerate the difference in IDS vs IPS Table:
| PARAMETER | IPS | IDS |
|---|---|---|
| Abbreviation for | Intrusion Prevention System | Intrusion Detection System |
| System Type | Active (monitor & automatically defend) and/ or passive | Passive (monitor and Notify) |
| Detection mechanism | Statistical anomaly based detection Signature detection: * Exploit-facing signatures * Vulnerability-facing signatures | Signature detection: * Exploit-facing signatures |
| Placement | Inline to data communication | Out of band from data communication |
| Anomaly response | Drop, alert or clean malicious traffic | Sends alarm/alert of detecting malicious traffic |
| Network performance impact | Slow down network performance due to delay caused by inline IPS processing | Does not impact network performance due to non-line deployment of IDS. |
| Benefits | Preferred by most organization since detection and prevention are automatically performed | Does not block legitimate traffic which might be blocked by IPS at times. |
Download the comparison table ips vs ids
Related Video
Watch this video to know more about IDS vs IPS difference –
Related – IDS vs IPS vs Firewall
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
You can learn more about her on her linkedin profile – Rashmi Bhardwaj
