Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) systems are valuable, but complex security tools. To provide the utmost effectiveness their deployment must be carefully considered. The primary factor that must be evaluated is where on the network the probes should be placed. Secondary to this, and influenced by it, is the number of probes that need to be deployed for effective coverage. To determine these factors, this tool will help to determine the following:
- Whether protection should be external only or external and internal.
- Whether protection should extend beyond the gateway to the edge router.
- Whether IDP should be deployed in a high-availability configuration.
- The number of IDP sensors that are required to achieve the required coverage.
With this data in hand, the enterprise will be able to move to the process of evaluating TCO for the various deployment methodologies and thereby implementing not only the most effective, but also the most cost-effective, solution.
This downloadable tool is associated with the research note, "Intrusion Detection and Prevention Setup: Three Key Decisions."