Joel Snyder’s Blog

I just finished a new white paper on picking Intrusion Prevention Systems.

Six Integral Steps to Selecting the Right IPS for Your Network

Here’s the Executive Summary:

Network Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) can be extremely effective pieces of your overall network security strategy. However, the IPS marketplace is filled with products that all do very different things and are suitable for very different environments. Therefore, buyers beware, because simply throwing any IPS into the network without careful consideration can be a costly error, both in terms of capital outlay and operational provisions.

The critical question to answer is: “Why are you buying an IPS?” (Step 1) Answering this question will help define both what you want in an IPS and help you weigh what you can expect to get from these products as you evaluate them for use in your network.

With the answer to this underlying question in hand, you’ll be well positioned to closely examine four aspects of IPS products that distinguish them from each other:

• Security parameters and coverage (Step 2)
• Performance (Step 3)
• Form factor (Step 4)
• Management (Step 5)

Considering how each product delivers on these four characteristics will allow you to quickly and efficiently create a short list of products that you will need to evaluate and test in your own network (Step 6) as the final –and essential - part of assuring that you are achieving the goals that will justify the costs associated with deploying an IPS in your network.