Intrusion Detection Software—Network IDS Security

with Security Event Manager

Correlate intrusion detection system (IDS) alerts with device logs for better visibility into your threat landscape.

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Protect your network by quickly discovering intrusions

Improve Detection

Reduce Manual Detection

Boost Cybersecurity

Demonstrate Compliance

Find Vulnerabilities

Streamline and improve detection of advanced threats

SolarWinds^® Security Event Manager (SEM) can collect logs to determine the number and type of attacks on your network and integrate those details with logs from other infrastructure components. You can use this information to help optimize existing IDS security systems and protocols or create more efficient ones to better safeguard your network. It can also help you proactively identify problematic network devices and develop detailed risk assessment reports for organizational stakeholders.

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Reduce manual network intrusion detection efforts

Technology native to SEM intrusion detection software enables you to save time by continuously monitoring and alerting on suspicious activities across your environment. Additionally, active response capabilities enable the tool to take action automatically when specific events occur. It can deploy network sensors to detect intrusions, automate network asset discovery, and pinpoint services being consumed, reducing the manual effort required from you or your team to detect and respond to cyber threats.

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Improve your cybersecurity and respond in real time

SEM is a powerful network intrusion detection system designed to help you respond to emergencies in real time. This intrusion detection software can keep you informed by continuously monitoring network traffic for suspicious activity or known threats, and alerting you when something is out of the ordinary. As a result, you can easily detect and respond to security threats and incidents as they happen, making it easier to resolve vulnerabilities, contain threats, and prevent issues from escalating.

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Demonstrate compliance with reporting designed to be user-friendly and effective

The network-based IDS solutions within SEM provide greater visibility across your network, offering detailed information to help demonstrate compliance. The hundreds of straightforward, out-of-the-box reporting templates included in the tool make it easy to complete standard reporting, which can be customized to fit the needs of your organization. You can schedule report delivery to stakeholders for review and approval.

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Identify vulnerability in your IT environment

For even greater insights into vulnerabilities in your IT environment, you can use SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted. This scalable, on-premises and cloud-based observability solution can integrate seamlessly with SEM and Access Rights Manager as Security Observability offering observability in hybrid IT environments.

With the help of this security observation integration, you can gain a more comprehensive dashboard view of your entire IT network and infrastructure, allowing you to better identify and address vulnerabilities and reduce entry points for cyberattacks. Ultimately, SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted can help you lower your risk of data breaches and system disruptions by providing unparalleled insights into your organization’s security landscape.

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Get More on Intrusion Detection Software (IDS)

Some common FAQs are…

What is intrusion detection software?
What does intrusion detection software do?
Why is having an IDS security system important?
How does the IDS software work in SEM?
What are the various types of IPSs?
What are the intrusion detection software best practices?

Intrusion detection software, which includes a network intrusion detection system (NIDS), can monitor network traffic for suspicious activity and violations of security policies and generate alerts if it detects malicious activity. These intrusion detection systems (IDSs) help shore up network security by analyzing traffic passing through strategic network points and subnets for signs of known cyberattack vectors.

Unlike firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), which are designed to proactively prevent cyber threats from accessing the network, network intrusion detection system software operates passively. As a detection-based software, network IDS monitors for and detects anomalous, malicious, or otherwise noteworthy traffic and sends alerts about its findings, but doesn’t prevent the traffic in question from reaching its intended destination.

Intrusion detection software, which includes a network intrusion detection system (NIDS), can monitor network traffic for suspicious activity and violations of security policies and generate alerts if it detects malicious activity. These intrusion detection systems (IDSs) help shore up network security by analyzing traffic passing through strategic network points and subnets for signs of known cyberattack vectors.

Unlike firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), which are designed to proactively prevent cyber threats from accessing the network, network intrusion detection system software operates passively. As a detection-based software, network IDS monitors for and detects anomalous, malicious, or otherwise noteworthy traffic and sends alerts about its findings, but doesn’t prevent the traffic in question from reaching its intended destination.
IDS security systems are vital in modern IT security, as they can monitor traffic, detect suspicious activities, and identify policy violations or patterns of cyberattacks. They can generate real-time alerts, allowing users to quickly respond to threats.

There are two primary types of intrusion detection software.

Signature-based threat detection systems: These systems scan traffic for known threats and patterns of intrusion events. Since attackers often circumvent signature-based IDSs by making minor alterations to threat intrusion patterns, signature-based IDS software is most effective when used as part of a comprehensive security solution rather than a standalone product.
Anomaly detection systems: These systems examine network traffic for unknown, novel attack vectors that signature-based systems can’t identify. Anomaly-based IDSs can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to rapidly compare traffic against trusted network behavior, enabling the software to identify unusual activity and outliers more efficiently.
Beyond monitoring network traffic and correlating event sequences for advanced threat detection, SEM scans USB devices and inbound and outbound files for signs of malicious alterations. It routinely checks the network file system for data integrity and suspicious activity.

The SEM signature databases are regularly updated for better protection against newly identified botnets and other cyberattacks. SEM can automatically take action after identifying intrusion events with no additional coding or customized scripts, giving you time to determine an appropriate response.

Some configurable actions include:

Sending notifications via many channels

Suspending or expelling user accounts responsible for malicious activity

Blocking IP addresses

Killing processes

Triggering shutdowns and restarts for affected systems and services

Isolating suspicious USB devices

SEM provides numerous network security functions and can integrate with event log files collected from other system infrastructures, offering a comprehensive approach to intrusion detection and prevention.
There are several types of intrusion detection and prevention systems. Each type plays a distinct role in comprehensive security, protecting devices, networks, and wireless environments from evolving cyberthreats.

Types of IPSs include:

Host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDSs): HIDSs monitor individual devices or hosts. They can analyze system logs, file integrity, and processes to identify suspicious activity, such as unauthorized access or file modifications.

Network intrusion detection systems (NIDSs): NIDSs can examine traffic across an entire network. They can analyze data packets for malicious activity and effectively detect large-scale threats, such as DDoS attacks or network breaches.

Protocol-based intrusion detection systems (PIDSs): PIDSs focus on analyzing the HTTP or HTTPS protocol stream between user devices and the server. Essentially, they monitor inbound and outbound traffic on your web server.

Application protocol-based intrusion detection systems (APIDSs): APIDSs monitor communications between applications and servers to detect intrusions.
To maximize the effectiveness of your intrusion detection software, it is crucial to adhere to best practices for intrusion detection and prevention systems. You should:

Strategically deploy your system: Position your intrusion detection systems at critical network points for optimal coverage.

Determine a baseline: Establish a baseline of normal network behavior early on. This will allow you and your IDS software to more easily and accurately identify anomalies and minimize false positives.

Customize rules: Tailor detection rules and thresholds to align with your organization’s specific security policies and needs.

Form an incident response plan: Develop and test a clear plan for responding to IDS alerts that includes how you will contain threats and what you will do to recover.

Integrate with other tools: Don’t rely only on intrusion detection and prevention systems. You can combine your IDS intrusion detection system with SEM tools, firewalls, access control systems, and more for a more thorough security approach.

Intrusion detection software continuously monitors for network attacks and suspicious activity

Security Event Manager

Unify and extract actionable intelligence from all your logs in real time.
Expedite threat response against malicious IPs, accounts, applications, and more.
Get out-of-the-box compliance reporting for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, ISO, and more.

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