Introduction to NIPS - Network Intrusion Prevention System

Going beyond detecting intrusions and blocking services based on IPs and Ports we have NIPS. Network Intrusion Protection Systems (NIPS) actively protects based on signature matches. Unlike firewalls, it inspects traffic at a deeper level and is able to control the traffic by blocking it in a variety of ways including sending Resets. Additionally, most NIPS products can handle and effectively control high volume attacks that are meant to distrupt network services. Even though NIPS products have been out for a few years, most large companies haven’t deployed them en masse due to the fact that it must be deployed in line. And this means the administrator must carefully deploy them and avoid configuring the NIPS to cause disruptions.

(more...)