NewsFactor: The Long and Short of Snort Intrusion Detection

“Intrusion-detection systems (IDS) have a mixed reputation in
the world of enterprise IT. Many IDSs have been accused of being
overly sensitive and flooding system administrators with false
alerts. They are also notoriously tough to manage. On the other
hand, such vendors as Symantec and Network Associates have gone out
of their way to gobble up makers of intrusion-detection products,
believing that they will become a must-have for an organization’s
security arsenal.

“In the meantime, however, many organizations are still on the
fence about intrusion detection. For them, the answer may lie with
a product called ‘Snort,’ an open-source IDS distributed under the
GNU GPL license by Martin Roesch, its creator. Snort allows IT
organizations to start detecting intruders on the cheap, and it is
a powerful program with a large following. But Snort is far from
perfect, and potential users need to be aware of both its strengths
and weaknesses…”

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