A sophisticated appliance-based network intrusion detection system (NIDS), the Dragon Network Sensor identifies misuse and attacks across the network. Placed at network aggregation points, the Dragon Network Sensor is unmatched in detecting intrusions via signature, protocol, and anomaly-based techniques. These multi-method detection techniques, combined with an extensive signature database and false-positive tuning capabilities, ensure that no intrusion goes undetected. When an attack is detected, Dragon Network Sensor employs a variety of techniques to prevent intrusion, including terminating the session and configuring firewall ACLs to block the would-be intruder. Dragon Network Sensor offers market-leading deep forensics capabilities, including flexible packet capture, complete session reconstruction, and highly configurable Session VCR - to capture the information needed to analyze network-based attacks.