The Business Need for Intrusion Prevention Systems

In today’s modern world where we rely so much on the Internet, it is no longer enough to deploy a network based firewall to block activities that may pose a threat.  Instead, organisations need to deploy a solution that examines network traffic at a much more in-depth level.

The deployment of an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) will allow you to detect and stop malicious network traffic, including spyware, worms and trojans, unwanted peer to peer traffic and botnet activity.  IPS appliances will examine outbound traffic to ensure that users browsing infected or malicious websites are not also infected.  This protection ensures that infections which can quickly spread internally are blocked at the gateway, resulting in enhanced network uptime and reducing costs involved in fighting viruses.

The Solution

There are a number of options available for protecting your network with an IPS.  For smaller organisations, the IPS function can be fulfilled inside the firewall appliance itself, thus delivering a cost-effective combined solution.  For larger deployments a separate IPS may be a better option – providing greater throughput and management control.

Deploying and managing an IPS is a particularly complex and highly skilled operation.  Regular updates and configuration tweaks will also be required to ensure that your IPS maintains its effectiveness.  For this reason, many organisations rely on external assistance to implement and manage their IPS estate. 

Why work with Network Defence?

Network Defence will be able to advise you on the most appropriate solution for your particular needs depending on the number of sites in scope, the bandwidth required and the level of management reporting to be delivered.  We will also ensure that legitimate traffic is not filtered out by the appliance and undertake regular monitoring to check that it is working at an optimum level.

Network Defence has many years of experience in managing complex environments for highly secure organisations, including hospitals, police forces, financial services institutions and defence contractors.

Find out how we can help you to manage your IPS safely and effectively