A new study conducted by communications market research firm Infonetics Research (News - Alert) was commissioned by intrusion prevention systems (IPS) vendor TippingPoint to examine buyer experience with these solutions in real world deployments.

 

The study, which looked at how customers purchase, deploy and use solutions from Cisco, IBM-ISS, McAfee (News - Alert), Sourcefire and TippingPoint. It found that many "IPS" products from key vendors are either not being used in line or have a limited number of filters set to "block" malicious traffic.

 

Infonetics anonymously surveyed nearly 170 IPS customers via phone, asking them a variety of questions concerning in-band blocking, filter effectiveness and ease of use. Jeff Wilson, principal network security analyst at Infonetics Research, said customers showed strong confidence in TippingPoint's ability to deliver in-band solutions and block attacks.

 

TippingPoint is a provider of comprehensive network security solutions that address the security and regulatory compliance needs of complex network environments for enterprises, government agencies, service providers and academic institutions also led the pack when customers were asked about IPS configuration experience and plans for new purchases.

 

The survey revealed the fact that respondents had more than 90 percent of their TippingPoint IPS devices deployed in-band, more than 70 percent of TippingPoint's customer-activated filters are set to block traffic, and the average number of attacks blocked per month for customers protected by TippingPoint IPS's was in excess of 235,000. TippingPoint scored highest overall, with more than 75 percent of customers installing its IPS in less than two hours.

 

According to Neal Hartsell, vice president of worldwide marketing for TippingPoint, hackers exploit applications to steal credit card numbers, intellectual property, and other assets with instant resell value. Customers must therefore deploy IPS's not only at the perimeter but also the data center, the DMZ, and major network segment points forcing IPS's to meet stringent uptime, performance, coverage, accuracy and ease of management demands.

 

"This survey shows that TippingPoint's customers unequivocally trust the TippingPoint IPS solution to sit in-band in the network with a large number of filters enabled to automatically block attacks without negatively affecting network performance," Hartsell added. "Customers are using our platform to prevent intrusions, not merely to sit out-of-band and generate security alerts after the fact."

 

TippingPoint's security intelligence is powered by DVLabs, a team of expert internal researchers for vulnerability analysis and discovery.