couple IDS development questions

[whilter () o2 pl]

Hi

Recently i'm working on a new IDS project.
As a matter a fact at the moment i'm stuck in a point where i'm supposted to decide few very important things :

1) Which language?? C/C++ with its 
already implemented projects (Snort, ModSecurity), Java with its multiplatform option? 

2) Should I just take a project and try to build a new one on top of it? Snort fe ? Has anybody done that before? Any 
suggestions?

3) How is network IDS analizing  network activity when almost every package nowadays is encrypted?

4) I'm thinking about encrypting IDS messages/alerts-packages as well? What cipher should i use?

I dont want to "go in a wrong direction" from the start so please help ;]

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