SIEM: Security Made Easy#

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is a software system that combines Security Information Management (SIM); an automated process of collecting data of log files into a central archive, and Security Event Management; a type of computer security that monitors, correlates and notifies users of events as they occur in a system; to collect, analyze and report on all security-related events happening in an organization. The goal is to provide real-time monitoring of security devices such as firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, and other network-based systems for potential threats. This post will explore the benefits of implementing a SIEM in your business by highlighting some of its most important features.

How do SIEMS work?#

Step 1: The first step is that the SIEM solution collects logs and events produced by prerecorded systems like endpoint devices, IoT devices, applications, firewalls, networks, and servers, to develop a holistic view of all the IT assets in an organization.

Step 2: The next step is to correlate and analyze the data provided in step 1 with normalized data to detect weaknesses, threats, and abnormalities in a system.

Step 3: It then triggers an alert, diagnoses, and corrects anomalies in the system by launching remediation techniques to fix the discovered vulnerabilities.

Step 4: Create and store generated logs about the averted averted risk for further forensic investigation or proof of compliance to applicable organizational standards.

Business Purpose#

The SIEM is mainly used by organizations to:

  • Monitor the threat landscape

  • Detect intrusions.

  • Respond to incidents.

  • Identify weaknesses in security posture.

  • Ensure compliance with current audit and governance processes.

Benefits of Implementing SIEM in Your Business#

  • It ensures that minimal damage is done to a system by initiating rapid detection and response to threats.

  • It can be programmed to send alerts when a threat is detected.

  • It can handle multitudes of data so that an organization does not have to worry about storage issues and inefficiency as assets increase over time.

  • It gathers information from multiple sources like networks, servers, and web applications to ensure the system stays up to date without missing any event.

  • It can find similarities in data and combine like events together to yield easy-to-understand information.

  • It turns data derived from collated events into a dashboard of charts for easy detection of patterns and deviant occurrences in a system.

  • It can store data for a long period of time, a necessary advantage to correlate past events with current ones for forensic inspection and to keep records for compliance requirements.

  • SIEM receives security proceedings from every nook and cranny of a network, leaving no room for dark spaces that cybercriminals can take advantage of. This is especially important for large-scale organizations where data can easily get lost in the crowd.

  • SIEM accomplishes compliance requirements of organizational frameworks like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Shortcomings of SIEMs#

  • SIEM systems are expensive to purchase and maintain.

  • SIEM requires highly skilled professionals to handle the responsibility of operating and updating the system to ensure efficacy at all times.

  • The configuration process of a SIEM system can be gruesome and time-consuming and misconfiguring the SIEM tool can result in missing sensitive events that may lead to security violations.

Types of SIEMs#

Administering SIEM solutions in an organization can be implemented in the following ways:

1. In-House: In this instance, an organization outrightly purchases the SIEM tool. The tool is then customized specifically to the organization’s needs and security requirements. Everything the tool entails including implementation into the security operation center, maintenance, updates, and patch management will be controlled by the organization.

2. Cloud-based: Here, utilization of the system is based on subscription. Users can choose to opt for monthly or yearly payments to enable the use of the SIEM tool as a security measure on their systems. This means that maintenance responsibility is shared by the system’s manufacturers for the period at which the subscription is active.

3. Managed SIEM: An organization can choose to solicit the services of external SIEM experts to operate and implement the SIEM tool on their behalf. This means that the responsibility lies on the external parties to monitor and secure all the activities on the organization’s network using either an in-house SIEM or cloud-based SIEM.

Final thoughts.#

Although SIEM is an expensive tool to possess and maintain, its benefits are a guaranteed value for money, this is why it is important for organizations to study available SIEMs in the market to know which one best suits their security needs before it is purchsed. Security in an organization heavily relies on the ability to detect and remediate threats immediately they surface to avert the risk of data loss or violation, SIEM provides accurate security solutions using artificial intelligence in contrast to human capabilities that lead to errors.

See also

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