What are the benefits of managed intrusion and detection services?

The constantly evolving cyberthreat landscape means that businesses must take a proactive stance to protect their digital assets. Recent years have seen more organizations adopt cloud computing and remote work policies, making the original concept of perimeter security largely irrelevant. They now have to protect against a wider array of threats and vulnerabilities over a distributed computing environment that consists of cloud-hosted systems, employee-owned devices, and internet-connected smart devices.

What is managed intrusion detection and prevention?

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS and IPS) typically form part of a unified threat management (UTM) solution that also incorporates firewalls and other security measures that keep potential threats at bay. While an IDS is a visibility tool that monitors network activity for suspicious or unusual behaviors, an IPS takes things a step further by proactively blocking connections and activities deemed risky.

What are the benefits of IDS and IPS?

Both IDS and IPS are crucial for a more secure system, but they also offer a host of benefits that businesses shouldn’t overlook. Here are the most notable benefits of managed IDS and IPS:

1. Reduce financial, business, and operational risk
With the cost of data breaches constantly increasing, it is more important than ever to prevent cyber incidents from happening in the first place. Conventional antivirus software usually only kicks in once malicious software has already made it past your firewall and other network controls. Moreover, antivirus solutions often fail to detect new and unknown threats, especially those that do not involve malicious code. IDS and IPS add a crucial extra layer of security that helps protect against financial loss caused by data breaches and reputational damage.

2. Keep unscheduled downtime to a healthy minimum
Increasing reliance on digital technologies means the cost of downtime is rising constantly. If, for example, customers are unable to access your website or employees are closed out of a mission-critical system due to a data breach, operations will come to a grinding halt. To make matters worse, there is often no telling how much time it will take to get the affected systems back up and running again. In the meantime, the cost of downtime increases sharply due to lost customers and reduced employee productivity.

3. Free up time for in-house teams to focus on core goals
Monitoring networks for malicious activity and stopping intrusions in their tracks is a full-time job that requires a team of cybersecurity specialists. This is an issue for many small- and medium-sized businesses since they usually don’t have the time and resources to manage such tasks. As a result, in-house IT departments are often pulled away from their core roles to deal with cybersecurity issues like mitigating a breach. Fortunately managed intrusion detection and prevention systems give teams access to automated security monitoring tools, allowing them to focus on their core competencies.

4. Proactively resolve potential network vulnerabilities
Intrusion detection and prevention is a proactive approach to cybersecurity designed to spot potential issues before they become a problem. Like the proactive IT support models, IDS and IPS help keep costs low by addressing threats as soon as they become known. Configured correctly, the systems will keep false positives to a minimum and help resolve potential problems before they disrupt your operations.

5. Meet the demands of regulatory compliance
In response to the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the regulatory landscape is constantly evolving. All existing compliance standards and frameworks, including HIPAA and PCI DSS, require organizations to implement IDS and IPS, along with regular monitoring, to protect against data breaches and other threats that put confidential information at risk. Companies that fail to implement IDS and IPS may face legal or economic sanctions.

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