Final answer:
NIDS have limited coverage and visibility, are difficult to parameterize, struggle with encrypted traffic, and are constrained by software and hardware requirements, affecting their accuracy and performance in dynamic network environments.
Step-by-step explanation:
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) are important tools for network security, but they come with certain limitations. One primary limitation is limited coverage and visibility, as NIDS can only analyze and protect the network traffic that it can directly observe, which may not represent all the traffic within a diverse network environment. This issue is exacerbated in modern, dynamic network environments where the NIDS may struggle to adapt quickly to changes.
In addition to the challenge of dynamic environments, NIDS are also difficult to parameterize. This means that setting up the appropriate configuration to correctly detect intrusions can be complex and time-consuming, requiring detailed knowledge of the network's normal behavior to avoid false positives and false negatives.
Moreover, NIDS often have trouble with analyzing encrypted traffic, which significantly reduces their accuracy in detecting malicious activity within encrypted streams. As more and more network traffic becomes encrypted, this limitation becomes increasingly significant.
It's also worth noting that NIDS tend to be limited by software and hardware requirements. High throughput networks may require powerful hardware to inspect all traffic in real time, and this can create a bottleneck or otherwise impact network performance negatively if not implemented with care.