Intrusion Detection: The Guard Inside the Gate - Page 4

TCF's Uslan admits that IDS isn't cheap, but questions how long companies can go without it. In order to make his company's IDS investment manageable and saleable to management, his strategy is not to put an engine everywhere, but rather to purchase a number of engines and move them around.

The locations are only known to a few network staff, he says. Important locations for IDS include the DMZ zone and highly used segments between servers, or on servers that house intellectual property.

What we can't afford to do [is] have our head in the sand, says Uslan.

The Bottom Line

There's no acceptable alternative to making the necessary investments in network security, because e-business raises the stakes for security risks. The consequences range from potential loss of customers to loss of an entire business.

The key to finding the right IDS security solution for your organization is planning. Take the time to understand your network, the pros and cons of available products and you won't be spending money willy-nilly, says Senzer. //

Lynn Haber writes on business and information technology from Norwell, Mass.