1. SNORT An Open Source Network Intrusion Prevention and Detection System. (NIPS and NIDS)

2. History of Snort Originally release in 1998 by Martin Roesch It was a designed as a “lightweight” technology Roesch’s goal was to make a “Category Killer” Roesch found inspiration in The Cathedral and the Bazaar Snort evolved from “lightweight” to being very robust over time. It is now the most widely deployed NIPS of all time.

3. What it means to be Open Source Free! Is often worked on by both professional developers and enthusiasts. Which leads to more frequent release cycles and more secure code. SOURCEfire “We don’t sell Intrusion Detection, we sell everything else.”

4. Main Features – 2.9.4.1 Snort is a Rule base software. They offer both Community Rules, and VRT certified rules. There is also the ability to create User Defined Rules Utilizes 3 Main modes: Sniffer mode, Packet Logger Mode, and Network Intrusion Detection System Mode.

5. Protection from what? DoS attacks Buffer overflows P2P attacks Worms Trojans Backdoor attacks Spyware Invalid headers Blended threats Rate-based attacks Zero-day threats Port scans VoIP attacks Pv6 attacks Statistical anomalies Protocol anomalies Application anomalies Malformed traffic TCP segmentation and IP fragmentation Success Stories: Conficker, Netsky, Nachi, Blaster, Sasser, Zotob and many more

6. Pro’s and Con’s ProsCons Open Source Customizable Incredibly fast Binaries Lots of choices Well documented Cross Platform Without Source Fire (paid) there is no tech support XML must be parsed to be utilized Complicated Binaries (code… more of an issue for developers) Not a real con, but it is not Cisco, and some people just really like Cisco

7. Location Download at: http://www.snort.org/snort- downloadshttp://www.snort.org/snort- downloads The source code it saved a *.tar.gz so for windows users you will need 7 zip to extract it. They have offices worldwide but there primary location is in Columbia Maryland. Worldwide Headquarters 9770 Patuxent Woods Drive Columbia, MD 21046, United States Phone: 800.917.4134 | +1 4102901616 Fax: 410.290.0024

8. Sources/Other Information/Questions http://www.snort.org/ http://www.sourcefire.com http://www.infoworld.com/t/business/nothing-snort- 070http://www.infoworld.com/t/business/nothing-snort- 070 http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/homesteading/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snort_(software)