Intrusion Detection and Correlation

Virtually all organizations face increasing threats to their networks and the services they provide. Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) take an increased pounding for failing to meet the expectations researchers and IDS vendors continually raise. Promises that IDSs are capable of reliably identifying malicious activity in large networks were premature and never turned into reality. While virus scanners and firewalls have visible benefits and remain virtually unnoticed during normal operations, the situation is different with intrusion detection sensors. State-of-the-art IDSs produce hundreds or even thousands of alerts every day. Unfortunately, almost all of these alerts are false positives, that is, they are not related to security-relevant incidents.