Cybera unveils intrusion detection service for Alberta schools and smaller public institutions

Cybera is pleased to launch its third and final offering as part of the new suite of cybersecurity services recently announced for Alberta’s research, education, and public sectors. Miridor is an intrusion detection system that gives organizations connected to Cybera’s network a simple — but detailed — overview of potential indicators of compromise on their network.

It works by “mirroring” the network traffic of participating members at Cybera’s core router locations, and analyzing that traffic for known suspicious activity. This analysis is catalogued in a customized, web-based database that can be reviewed by the member’s operations team. It also provides exportable data that can be used for more detailed investigations.

For smaller institutions with limited cybersecurity resources, the benefits of Miridor as an intrusion detection system is its simplicity to set up and use. It also does not require extra equipment to deploy.

Examples of the suspicious activities Miridor looks for include:

  • Malicious or malformed traffic
  • Traffic attempting to exploit vulnerabilities
  • Traffic from known botnets and other threat sources

The service is available to Alberta-based public sector organizations that are connected to Cybera’s network. It is particularly geared towards smaller institutions (i.e. with bandwidth traffic under 1.3 Gbps).

Miridor is intended to serve organizations that are not eligible for the Intrusion Detection System available through the CANARIE-funded Cybersecurity Initiatives Program (CIP), although some eligible organizations may choose to implement both systems (see Miridor’s webpage for more details on how Miridor compares to the CIP IDS service).

To register for any of Cybera’s new security offerings, including Miridor, members are asked to contact Cybera’s project team at projects@cybera.ca.

To find out more about national higher education security services available through CANARIE’s Cybersecurity Initiatives Program, visit canarie.ca/cybersecurity/cip.