Intrusion-Detection Software - 14 Sep 2004

Symantec Intruder Alert is this year's Best Intrusion-Detection Software, but it had to get past tough contender NetIQ Security Manager, which won the honor the two previous years. Like the firewall field, the intrusion-detection field was broad, with many competitors on the ballot and many write-in votes.

But Intruder Alert, a host-based, real-time intrusion-monitoring system, prevailed. Intruder Alert detects unauthorized activity and security breaches and responds automatically. If Intruder Alert detects a threat, it acts according to established security policies to prevent information loss or theft. You use Intruder Alert's central console to create, update, and deploy policies and securely collect and archive audit logs for incident analysis. Intruder Alert complements firewalls and other access controls.

Intruder Alert includes specialized software agents that support server platforms running Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; Windows 2000; Windows NT; most commercial versions of UNIX; and Novell NetWare. You can also configure it to monitor Web or database applications running on servers.