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The list of products below is based purely on reviews (sorted from most to least). There is no paid placement and analyst opinions do not influence their rankings. Here is our Promise to Buyers to ensure information on our site is reliable, useful, and worthy of your trust.
AlienVault® Unified Security Management® (USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management in one unified platform. It is designed to combine all the essential security capabilities needed for effective security monitoring across cloud and on-premises…
SolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.
CrowdStrike offers the Falcon Endpoint Protection suite, an antivirus and endpoint protection system emphasizing threat detection, machine learning malware detection, and signature free updating. Additionally the available Falcon Spotlight module delivers vulnerability assessment…
Zscaler Internet Access is delivered as a security stack as a service from the cloud, and is designed to eliminate the cost and complexity of traditional secure web gateway approaches, and provide easily scaled protection to all offices or users, regardless of location, and minimize…
OSSIM leverages the power of the AlienVault Open Threat Exchange by allowing users to both contribute and receive real-time information about malicious hosts. AlienVault OSSIM is an open source Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) product. It is a unified platform providing:…
Juniper SRX is a firewall offering. It provides a variety of modular features, scaled for enterprise-level use, based on a 3-in-1 OS that enables routing, switching, and security in each product.
Cisco Secure IPS (formerly Firepower Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System, or NGIPS) is an intrusion detection response system that produces security data and enhances the analysis by InsightOps. The technology replaces the former Sourcefire 3D IPS. Cisco acquired Sourcefire…
Proofpoint Advanced Threat Detection is a suite of threat detection products including Attack Protection for Email, SaaS applications, Mobile Defense, Threat Response, and Threat Intelligence.
Threats do not discriminate between application delivery vectors, requiring an approach that has full visibility into all application traffic, including SSL encrypted content, with full user context. Threat Prevention leverages the visibility of our next-generation firewall…
RackFoundry was a firewall solution with VPN, SIEM, automated vulnerability scanning and log management features scaled for SME’s. It has been discontinued and is no longer available.
Powertech Exit Point Manager for IBM i from HelpSystems allows users to reduce the risk of unauthorized and unaudited server access with system access monitoring, tracking and control software for IBM i.
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior to protect your AWS accounts and workloads.
The TippingPoint Threat Protection System (TPS) from Trend Micro is an intrusion detection and prevention system.
ManageEngine's EventLog Analyzer provides log management, auditing, and IT compliance management. It can be downloaded for Windows or Linux.
McAfee Network Security Platform is an intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS).
The FireEye Network Security and Forensics product combines network traffic analysis (via the FireEye SmartVision module), network forensics for attack analysis (via the PX series), and is built around the FIreEye NX series of products.
Suricata is a free and open source network threat detection engine. The Suricata engine is capable of real time intrusion detection (IDS), inline intrusion prevention (IPS), network security monitoring (NSM) and offline pcap processing.
Zeek (formerly Bro) is a platform for network security monitoring that is available free and open-source.
Security Onion is a free and open source Linux distribution for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring, and log management, developed by the company of the same name in Evans. Their products include both the Security Onion software and specialized hardware appliances that…
Capsule8 from Sophos (acquired 2021) provides attack protection for enterprise Linux -- whether containerized, virtualized, or bare metal. It is an EDR solution the vendor presents as performant and purpose built Linux detection that protects against threats, provides consistent…
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are software products that monitor network or system activities, and analyze them for signs of any violations of policy, acceptable use, or standard security practices. They then report any malicious activities or policy violations to system administrators.
IDS are often part of a broader digital security posture. Larger organizations and enterprises in particular will integrate intrusion detection systems into their security information and event management (SIEM) system. This integration is key at centralizing security alerts and management processes to make the business’s security systems more manageable.
A key benefit of intrusion detection systems is that they serve as an adaptable front line in a broader security alerting and management structure, particularly at enterprises with the resources and needs to maintain multiple lines of security. IDS also log suspected intrusion activity, which creates a paper trail that can be helpful for legal and regulatory reasons in some circumstances.
A common challenge for intrusion detection systems is the prevalence of false positives. IDSs tend to identify a lot of false positives in order to make sure that no intrusions slip by undetected. A key challenge and differentiator among IDSs is their ability to continually manage and reduce instances of false positives without compromising the core security offering of the product.
There has been an evolution in the IDS market to include a more “advanced” tier of systems that include prevention features specifically. Intrusion detection systems are concerned primarily with identifying potential incidents and logging information about them and notifying administrators of observed events.
However some systems, usually called instruction prevention systems, actively try to prevent intrusion threats from succeeding. They can do so by blocking traffic to or from certain IP addresses or block specific packets until an IT administrator validates it. The specific features offered will vary by product. As the market evolves, intrusion detection and prevention will likely converge into a single product as the norm, rather than the exception. Currently, there are still a large number of products that specialize into one or the other functionality.
There are two main types of intrusion detection systems:
Network-based systems: Network-based systems monitor network traffic for network segments or devices to identify suspicious activity
Host-based systems: Host-based systems monitor the characteristics of a single host, such as a computer, and events occurring within that host
When comparing intrusion detection systems, consider these factors:
Detection vs. Prevention Focus: Some IDS providers have expanded to include more native prevention capabilities as well. These features can be very helpful, but some with additional up front and overhead costs to manage. Consider whether native intervention tools are necessary and whether there are preexisting tools in the organization that can serve that purpose already.
Integrations with InfoSec Tech Stack: How well does each product integrate with the other network and application security products the organization uses? Consider reviewers’ experiences with those specific integrations, as well as any information vendors can provide about specific use cases.
Standalone IDS vs. Security Platform: Security technology has been trending towards unification and centralization for years. Consider whether it is more helpful to the enterprise to have a standalone, specialized tool for intrusion detection, or adopt a larger security platform that bundles intrusion detection with other features like firewalls or SIEM systems.
Intrusion detection systems will vary in price depending on whether it is a standalone system or part of a larger security suite. In the former case, standalone systems start at $1,000-2,000 and can scale up to $10,000+.
