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It's time to take IPS seriously |
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Source: TechWorld - Posted by Pax Dickinson
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Fear unites us. We used to be afraid of network problems, such as bandwidth and broken switches. Now we're afraid of the bad guys. Our networks must be connected to the Internet, yet the Internet is a cesspool of attackers constantly hammering on our defences, looking for that chink in the armour. It's not just the Internet: we fear our own users, lest their indispensable laptops acquire some vagrant affliction while driving by a Starbucks Wi-Fi hot spot.
To assuage our fear, we need tools. There are those who want to sell all manner of software for PCs: personal firewalls, security checkers, virtual desktops, and NAC and NAP and TAP and other acronyms not yet invented.
Network managers know that these are not the answer: The network must defend itself. Cisco's advertising slogan is not so stupid after all. And what better technology than an intrusion-prevention system (IPS)? Something you plug into the network itself, and it inspects packets and blocks the bad ones.
Every network needs IPS technology. All networks have firewalls, a basic protective technology. But the firewall is a mute guardian, seldom touched and rarely examined. It blocks all but a few connections that have been predefined as acceptable. Firewalls need to be updated with current software, but that happens twice yearly at most.
Read this full article at TechWorld
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