What’s the Difference Between IDS and IPS—and When Do You Use Each?

This document provides an overview of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), outlining key functional differences (IDS as passive/observational vs. IPS as active/blocking), deployment scenarios, detection techniques (signature and behavior-based), and operational considerations such as tuning to manage false positives and false negatives; it also discusses combined deployment strategies and mentions SecurityScorecard’s MAX managed service.