Acre Security recently published a new blog on its website, offering a comprehensive buyer’s guide to intrusion detection systems for 2025, explaining what an IDS is, key features and different types, how to choose the right solution, and what to avoid.

If somebody cut your perimeter fence or forced entry to your premises, how quickly would you know about it? Without an advanced warning system, these breaches can go undetected for too long. The consequences are dire: operational disruption, compliance penalties, and serious loss or damage to property, IP, and profits.

This is why an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is essential to any modern security strategy. Your IDS is like a diligent team of guards, monitoring your environment for unwanted activity and alerting you to threats before they can develop.

What Is an Intrusion Detection System?

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) monitors physical spaces, perimeters, or specific assets for signs of unauthorized entry, presence, or activity. The resulting alerts serve as a crucial early warning system.

Unlike a lock that only prevents entry, an IDS observes, analyses, and notifies, giving security teams intelligence to help investigate and respond to threats that might otherwise go unnoticed until it’s too late.

Why your organisation needs an Intrusion Detection System in 2025

Looking at wider trends in security issues, the need for robust intrusion detection has never been greater.

• An evolving threat: Potential break-ins, vandalism, theft, and spying are constant issues. Whether from targeted sabotage or someone trying their luck, bad actors take advantage of your vulnerabilities and can wreak havoc. Locks alone are not enough. An IDS gives you the visibility you need to truly stay protected in 2025.
• Growing compliance and regulatory demands: The regulatory and compliance market is set to grow from $3.48 billion in 2024 to $9.02 billion by 2032. Both industry regulations and governmental mandates are on the rise, each calling for monitoring, auditing, and rapid incident response. An IDS helps you meet these obligations.
• Protecting people: Out of all your assets, people are some of the most important – and vulnerable. An IDS is a vital line of defense for safeguarding equipment, inventory, blueprints, data centres, and operational technology. Even more importantly, however, it keeps your employees and visitors safe from intruders.

Three key types of Intrusion Detection Systems

There are three main types of Intrusion Detection Systems you should be aware of, with each one serving a different purpose and area of your business:

1. Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS)

PIDS detect intruders at the outer edges of your property. They monitor fences, walls, open grounds, or the space around buildings.

You might see technologies like fiber-optic fence sensors, microwave barriers, taut-wire systems, active infrared (IR) beams, radar/doppler sensors, thermal imaging cameras, buried and ground-based sensors.

They are best for large industrial complexes, critical infrastructure sites, airports, military bases, and data centres.

2. Interior intrusion detection systems

These systems monitor movement or unauthorized entry inside buildings, rooms, or specific secure zones within the perimeter.

Common types include motion detectors (Passive Infrared – PIR or dual-technology), acoustic sensors, vibration sensors, magnetic contacts, and pressure mats.

You’ll often find them in commercial offices, retail stores, warehouses, server rooms, executive offices, and vaults.

3. Digital IDS

An effective IDS is backed-up by systems to monitor digital activity for signs of a breach. That might look like changes to critical files, repeated failed login attempts, unexpected network connections, or abnormal application behavior. 

You have Host-Based Intrusion Detection (HIDS), which alerts you to tampering with specific servers or devices. Network-Based IDS (NIDS), meanwhile, detect attacks on networks. There are also hybrid IDS solutions, which offer both.

Any organisation with a network and endpoints should have HIDS, NIDS, or both in place.

This is just a snippet of the buyer’s guide, and the whole read, can be found, here

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