What is HIPS? (Explanation)

[knicksfan3]

Host-based

A host-based IPS (HIPS) is one where the intrusion-prevention application is resident on that specific IP address, usually on a single computer. HIPS complements traditional finger-print-based and heuristic antivirus detection methods, since it does not need continuous updates to stay ahead of new malware. As ill-intended code needs to modify the system or other software residing on the machine to achieve its evil aims, a truly comprehensive HIPS system will notice some of the resulting changes and prevent the action by default or notify the user for permission.

Extensive use of system resources can be a drawback of existing HIPS, which integrate firewall, system-level action control and sandboxing into a coordinated detection net, on top of a traditional AV product. This extensive protection scheme may be warranted for a laptop computer frequently operating in untrusted environments (e.g. on cafe or airport Wi-Fi networks), but the heavy defenses may take their toll on battery life and noticeably impair the generic responsiveness of the computer as the HIPS protective component and the traditional AV product check each file on a PC to see if it is malware against a huge blacklist. Alternatively if HIPS is combined with an AV product utilising whitelisting technology then there is far less use of system resources as many applications on the PC are trusted (whitelisted). HIPS as an application then becomes a real alternative to traditional antivirus products.

-Wikipedia

[Senexx]

I didn't know HIPS used a sandbox-like environment. Now I think about, I suppose it has to.

[Nashua]

HIPS Explained. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content ... lained.htm