The invention discloses a distributed intrusion detection method based on an ant colony algorithm. The distributed intrusion detection method comprises the following processes: starting, initializinga distributed sensor, setting parameters of the ant colony algorithm based on attribute decision making, constructing a decision tree structure definition rule, setting ants on sensor nodes, determining a next node of data fusion, partially updating the information factors of an ant selection path, trimming the decision tree, and updating all information factors of the ant selection path, if an optimal path is not discovered, returning to the step of partially updating the information factors of the ant selection path; and finding the optimal path, creating the optimal path, and fusing data information. Compared with the prior art, the distributed intrusion detection method has the advantages of improving the detection efficiency of data intrusion in a network system, reducing the energy consumption and effectively guaranteeing the security of the distributed network system.