DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEM IN A COMPUTER NETWORK

Abstract

The development of network technologies and application has promoted network attack both in number and severity.  The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of attacks, hence, intrusion detection has become the mainstream of information assurance. A computer network system should provide confidentiality, integrity and assurance against denial of service. While firewalls do provide some protection, they do not provide full protection.  This is because not all access to the network occurs through the firewall.  This is why firewalls need to be complemented by an intrusion detection system (IDS).An IDS does not usually take preventive measures when an attack is detected; it is a reactive rather than proactive agent. It plays the role of an informant rather than a police officer. In this research, an intrusion detection system that can be used to deny illegitimate access to some operations was developed. The IDS also controls the kind of operations performed by users (i.e. clients) on the network. However, unlike other methods, this requires no encryption or cryptographic processing on a per-packet basis. Instead, it scans the various messages sent on a network by the user. The system was developed using MicrosoftVisual Basic.