What is the difference between IPS Prevention Mode and Detection Mode?

Zyxel_Cooldia

Question: What is the difference between IPS Prevention Mode and Detection Mode?

Answer:

Detection Mode
Purpose:

Monitors traffic and logs any suspicious activity without taking action to block or drop it.
Behavior:
Logs threats or events for administrator review.
Does not interfere with traffic flow.
Use Case:
Useful during initial deployment or testing phases to analyze what the firewall would block if Prevention Mode were active.
Helps avoid service disruption due to false positives.

Prevention Mode
Purpose:

Actively blocks, drops, or denies traffic that matches threat signatures or rules.
Behavior:
Takes real-time action based on threat detection (e.g., drops a packet, blocks an IP, terminates a session).
Logs the event for auditing purposes.
Use Case:
Recommended for production environments after policies are tuned to minimize false positives.
Provides actual protection by enforcing security policies.