It has been a given that there are a lot of things that networks and workstations would be vulnerable to. At the top of the list are harmful files and sudden intrusions that are obviously up to no good. While resorting to firewalls may be seen as something that would prevent such attacks, intrusion detection systems cater more towards the inner system igniters, usually providing warnings prior to required action on the part of network administrators on the issue at hand.
Also, IDS monitors the behavior of the internal system since attacks of any sort may occur from files that can be initiated at any time or have already passed through the firewall for some reason beyond the set security policies.
It is a good practice to always check the network communications and identify possible security breaches. While intrusion detection systems can be able to apprehend abnormal processes, the presence of such intrusions within the internal system only proves that system and network security should be re-evaluated for stricter measures.
[tags]intrusion detection systems, network security, operating systems[/tags]