Intrusion Detection: Staying One Step Ahead of Cyber Threats

Intrusion Detection: Staying One Step Ahead of Cyber Threats

The cybersecurity landscape is more fraught than ever before. Moreover, the nature of the cyber threats that businesses now face is somewhat different from the past. For a long time, the majority of cyberattacks that penetrated business networks revolved around one of two attack vectors. One was the infiltration of malware into a business network to create a pathway through the network’s security. The other was the use of stolen user credentials, often collected via phishing campaigns aimed at employees. However, in 2023, things have changed.

According to a recent threat analysis by a well-known cybersecurity firm, approximately 71% of cyberattacks are now malware-free. That means the vast majority of cyberattacks now involve compromised credentials and software exploits alone. As a result, businesses can no longer rely on conventional endpoint security to spot the signs of network infiltration as much as they once did. Instead, they must now invest in intrusion detection systems. These systems can help identify network usage patterns that represent suspicious activity, allowing them to thwart an attack in progress.

In this article we discuss intrusion detection, what it involves, and how businesses should leverage it to protect their networks and data.

What Is Intrusion Detection?

As the name suggests, intrusion detection is a type of network traffic monitoring that serves as an early warning system for network administrators. However, not all intrusion detection systems (IDS) work in the same way. You may find an IDS deployed at various points within a business network. That is because there are five main types of IDS in wide use today. They are:

1. Network Intrusion Detection Systems

Deployed as either a hardware or virtualized network appliance, network intrusion detection systems monitor traffic at key points to look for unusual traffic patterns that might suggest a cyberattack in progress.

2. Protocol Intrusion Detection Systems

Typically deployed in front of public-facing web servers, protocol intrusion detection systems monitor incoming and outgoing web traffic for signs of abuse.

3. Application Protocol Intrusion Detection Systems

Application protocol intrusion detection systems typically monitor communication on specific network protocols between servers and devices. They allow administrators to spot attackers who try to leverage a vulnerability in a server or application to gain access to other connected systems.

4. Host Intrusion Detection Systems

Host intrusion detection systems are the endpoint-focused type of IDS. They can run on PCs, network devices, servers, or anything else connected to a business network. That puts them in the perfect position to spot a compromised device early, spot unauthorized changes to stored files, and are particularly adept at guarding against insider threats.

5. Hybrid Intrusion Detection Systems

A hybrid intrusion detection system is an IDS that offers monitoring capabilities spanning the above IDS types. They may, for example, monitor traffic on multiple protocols between servers and the internet, as well as specific protocols connecting servers internally. They also tend to rely on a unified interface that makes the job of a network administrator significantly easier.

How Do Intrusion Detection Systems Work?

Broadly speaking, intrusion detection systems rely on two types of threat detection mechanisms. Some use only one method, while others use both to cast a wider detection net. The two major detection methods are:

Signature Detection

The first type of detection method is signature detection. They rely on a continually updated, crowd-sourced database of known attack signatures. Systems that use this method of detection tend to offer reliable alerting and few false positives because they have clearly defined threat profiles to match network traffic against.

Anomaly Detection

Anomaly detection is the other detection method that an IDS may use. Instead of looking for the hallmarks of a known threat, an anomaly detection system instead looks for traffic patterns that do not match the norm within a network. They work well against previously unreported attack types but may generate a higher percentage of false positive alerts. To minimize that issue, some IDS leverage artificial intelligence to screen out unusual traffic patterns that have logical, non-malicious explanations. Critically, however, such systems can analyze multiple simultaneous anomalies to determine if a malicious pattern exists between them.

Why Intrusion Prevention Is So Critical

As the threats to business networks continue to evolve, one thing is crystal clear. Businesses can no longer rely on past trends alone to plan for their future cyber defense needs. Instead, they must invest in technology that can evolve alongside whatever future threats emerge. Intrusion detection systems offer businesses a cybersecurity tool that can do just that.

By deploying an IDS solution or solutions—depending on their specific network vulnerabilities—businesses can mount a proactive defense that guards against cyber threats both known and unknown. This is especially critical in light of the recent explosion in zero-day attacks. Such attacks involve the exploitation of previously unknown or undiscovered flaws in software or hardware.

Zero-day threats mean businesses that use affected software or hardware will remain vulnerable until the vendor responsible releases a patch. Even then, protection depends on the business moving quickly to deploy all available security patches to devices throughout their networks. That is especially troubling given that the average business takes 97 days to fully test and deploy security patches once they become available.

With intrusion detection technology in place, and especially versions of it that use anomaly detection, businesses can spot and halt zero-day attacks as they happen. That gives them a fighting chance against software and hardware exploits. Additionally, for businesses that opt for AI-augmented intrusion detection systems, it is a defensive measure that will not ever go out of date. Instead, it will keep learning from incoming traffic to offer complete protection from any threat it gets exposed to.

Your Network Security Specialists

It is worth pointing out that intrusion detection systems are just a single tool in a wider cybersecurity arsenal that businesses should make use of. The key to getting the most out of an IDS is to surround it with complementary tools and put it in the hands of specialists with the right knowledge to maximize its benefits. That is where Outsource IT comes in. We stand ready to help businesses of all sizes design and deploy comprehensive cybersecurity defenses. To learn more about our comprehensive cybersecurity and business IT support services, contact an Outsource IT account managers today.

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