"Security professionals seeking to secure their networks against constant cyber attacks are challenged by the flood of options. In particular, they can be daunted by the many dimensions of implementing Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). The author will first summarize some of the most effective ways to identify and implement an IDS/IPS for your organization, and then will move into the common misconfigurations identified across the various solutions available and how the misconfigurations can be actively exploited by a malicious actor. The author will first summarize the setups and configurations that companies commonly use for their IDS and IPS solutions, then will move into the many ways that these systems can be bypassed and evaded. With each technique and tool covered, the author will highlight the common IDS/IPS misconfiguration that the tool takes advantage. Lastly, the author will make recommendations for more secure IDS/IPS that aim to increase not only the security of the system itself, but the company’s security posture as a whole."