SIEM

Security Information & Event Management

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What is a SIEM solution?

A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution is a 24/7 intelligent threat detection system. It collects logs, makes statistical correlations, analyzes threat alerts across your network, combines data from several different sources, and helps security teams remediate issues before they cause serious damage to your company.

Your firewalls, intrusion detection systems, anti-virus software, wireless access points and Active Directory servers all generate tons of security alerts every day. With a SIEM, you can collect all of these in one place, with one set of reports and one centralized system for generating notifications.

NOTE! It can take several days, even months, to identify a data compromise. Modern IT security tools can generate millions of security alerts over the course of a day, but a SIEM solution filters out the noise, so the real threats get immediate attention.

Why Is SIEM Important?

The longer it takes to detect a threat, also known as “discovery time,” the more potential damage to your organization. A SIEM solution will identify real threats faster so your response team can act quickly before a breach occurs. It provides real-time visibility into what’s happening across your entire network 24/7.

A SIEM solution provides logging and reporting for compliance purposes. It provides centralized, built-in, easy-to-use, real-time log collection, alerting and reporting features.

Real threats are identified, isolated, and remediated quickly before they can cause serious harm and costly business disruptions.

SIEMs can help detect, mitigate, and prevent advanced threats, including:

  • Malicious insiders – a SIEM solution can use network data, authentication, etc. to identify insiders planning or carrying out a cyberattack.
  • Data exfiltration (sensitive information transferred outside the organization) – a SIEM solution can identify data transfers that are abnormal in their size, frequency, or payload.
  • Advanced persistent threats – it can detect early signals indicating that an outside entity is launching a cyberattack or a long-term campaign against your organization.

A full SIEM solution also blends geolocation to increase its accuracy, ensures notifications are actionable in order to reduce false positives.

How Does It Work?

We call it E-R-I-N.

Events

Firstly, it collects millions of security alerts, or events, from your entire network, including cloud resources and mobile devices.

Rules

Secondly, we apply rules to determine which events are actionable threats. These threats become incidents.

We customize the ruleset to your network specific device types and against an established traffic baseline. We tune these rules continually based on changes to the threat landscape and changes to the customer’s hardware/software environment, as well as apply new rules based on new threats.

Incidents

Based on the criticality, an incident may be simply logged, it may be written in a report to be viewed later, or it may require immediate attention, generating an immediate notification.

Notifications

Finally, your response team is instantly notified so remediation can begin.

Who Needs a SIEM?

With today’s ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, a SIEM solution plays a crucial role in staying ahead of the latest threats.

While every business can benefit from a SIEM, those that must comply with industry and government regulations and those looking to qualify for cybersecurity insurance will find it essential.

Businesses in healthcare, finance, accounting, and government agencies must meet specific regulatory requirements. An effective SIEM is key to complying with PCI, HIPAA, and FFIEC standards.

SIEM can check all the boxes on today’s stringent cybersecurity insurance applications. And once you get coverage, a SIEM can provide the detailed forensic analysis insurers require before they pay out in the event of security breach.

Next-Gen SIEM Capabilities

User and entity behavior analytics in advanced SIEM solutions utilize artificial intelligence and deep learning to look at patterns of human behavior.

Next-gen SIEMs may detect the first stages of a ransomware attack and perform the necessary containment steps automatically on affected resources, before the attacker can encrypt the data, while simultaneously generating notifications.

For more information about SIEM and how it can help protect your organization, please reach out.