What is one potential consequence of a high false positive rate in an IDS?

A high false positive rate in an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can lead to alert fatigue among security personnel. This occurs when a large number of alerts are generated for benign activities, which may cause security teams to become overwhelmed or desensitized to the alerts. As a result, they might start to overlook legitimate alarms or fail to respond promptly to real security incidents, which could ultimately compromise the security of the network.

In an environment where alerts are frequently triggered for non-threatening activities, the sheer volume can lead to staff becoming exhausted, distracted, or skeptical about the relevance of the alerts. This scenario can reduce the overall effectiveness of the security operations, as valuable resources might be wasted sifting through false alerts rather than focusing on genuine threats.

Therefore, the consequence of alert fatigue highlights the importance of refining IDS calibration and improving detection algorithms to minimize false positives and maintain the attention of security personnel on credible threats.