IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) is definitely the next level of security technology with its capability to provide security at all system levels from the operating system kernel to network data packets. It provides policies and rules for network traffic along with an IDS for alerting system or network administrators to suspicious traffic, but allows the administrator to provide the action upon being alerted. Where IDS informs of a potential attack, an IPS makes attempts to stop it. Another huge leap over IDS, is that IPS has the capability of being able to prevent known intrusion signatures, but also some unknown attacks due to its database of generic attack behaviours. Thought of as a combination of IDS and an application layer firewall for protection, IPS is generally considered to be the "next generation" of IDS.
Figure 1 IPS (Intrusion
Prevention System)
An IPS can also correct Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) errors, unfragment packet streams, prevent TCP sequencing issues, and clean up unwanted transport and network layer options.
Classifications of IPS Intrusion prevention systems can be classified into four different types:
 Network-based intrusion prevention system (NIPS) A network-based intrusion prevention system (NIPS) is a system used to monitor a network as well as protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of a network. Its main functions include protecting the network from threats, such as denial of service (DoS) and unauthorized usage. NIPS hardware may consist of a dedicated Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) device, an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), or a combination of the two such as an Intrusion Prevention and