Getting 'Snort'

Intrusion-detection systems, such as Snort, are immensely helpful in maintaining secure environments. These systems have matured over the years and are now quite capable of providing solution providers with a great offering for their clientele.

Common attempts that are thwarted by a properly configured intrusion-detection system include:

* Buffer overflows

* CGI attacks

* SMB probes

* OS fingerprinting

* Port scans

* FIN scans

* NULL scans

For more information on Snort, see www.snort.org. There is plenty of documentation available for Snort that walks you through installation, setup and advanced uses. The program is also freely available through SourceForge, at w ww.sourceforge.net. --K.C.