On Monday, LANDesk Software announced Host Intrusion Prevention, a behavior-based security monitoring, alerting, and remediation solution. In a conversation with Devin Anderson, LANDesk's security business line manager, and Dan Cook, director of public relations, I learned that traditional patching and detection methods are no longer sufficient protection for most networks because those solutions can't respond quickly enough to the increasing number of targeted zero-day attacks. (In answer to my question about whether host-based intrusion prevention systems (HIPS) are making desktop antivirus obsolete, Devin responded that HIPS encompasses antivirus, and that all enterprises need several layers of protection. His analogy: If antivirus is the seatbelt, then HIPS is the airbag, and everyone needs both.) HIPS is a more efficient, proactive defense against increasingly sophisticated network attacks. Host Intrusion Prevention, like all LANDesk solutions, is service-oriented, using behavior- and rules-based technology to identify security policy violations. The value of Host Intrusion Prevention for existing LANDesk customers is in the way the solution builds on other LANDesk management and security products. Integrating Host Intrusion Prevention with LANDesk Security Suite provides integrated patch, antivirus, and antispyware management, Network Access Control (NAC), mobile-device security, and HIPS in one management console.
