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Gartner: Intrusion Detection Systems a Bust

Investing money in intrusion detection and prevention technologies is a mistake because the systems are failing to provide value and will be obsolete by 2005, according to research analysts at Gartner. The analyst firm, which relishes throwing cold water on hyped technology sectors, recommends IT buyers spend their money on good firewalls.

"Intrusion detection systems are a market failure, and vendors are now hyping intrusion prevention systems, which have also stalled," Richard Stiennon, a Gartner analyst, said in a statement released Wednesday.

"Functionality is moving into firewalls, which will perform deep packet inspection for content and malicious traffic blocking, as well as antivirus activities," Stiennon said

Gartner cites four main problems with intrusion detection systems (IDSs): false positives and negatives, increased monitoring burden on IS organizations, a taxing incident-response process and an inability to monitor traffic at transmission rates greater than 600 Mbps.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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