Practical Network Scanning

Intrusion detection system

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a type of signature-based software designed to monitor or scan network traffic to find suspicious activity and trigger alerts when something is trying to compromise an information system through malicious activities or security policy violations. Alerting information contains information about the source address of the intrusion, the target/victim address, and the type of attack that is suspected. An IDS is referred to as attack detection technology, but it cannot prevent or stop attacks. In contrast, an IPS device can be used to  prevent attacks by detecting them and stopping them proactively before they reach a target.