SIEM is transforming the way organizations are detecting threats thanks to its ability to collect data across several devices and develop actionable intelligence for security response teams. Although SIEM has been around for a while, it continues to evolve and help organizations defend against emerging threats. According to the 2019 SIEM Report, more than 70% of organizations found that SIEM resulted in better detection of threats and a measurable reduction in security breaches.

Source: AlienVault

What is SIEM?

SIEM stands for Security Information and Event Management and is used to detect threats by collecting and analyzing log data from various networks, systems and devices (e.g. firewalls, computers, etc.). The data collected from the SIEM is then turned into actionable information that allows security teams to respond to potential threats.

The Benefits of SIEM for Organizations

1. Compliance: SIEM includes compliance reporting capabilities, which is valuable for organizations who must adhere to compliance regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. The log data generated by SIEM provides historical records which is necessary for incident investigations.

2. Clarity: SIEM analyzes activity from every part of the infrastructure. The log data produced can help organizations understand the events happening in their infrastructure. This is especially useful if a security incident occurs and can help organizations determine what happened.

3. Save time and money: SIEM is typically expensive due to licensing fees and the costs associated with hiring a security team to run the system. Outsourcing SIEM as a service from a provider like Jolera allows organizations of all sizes to have access to an enterprise grade system like SIEM. SIEM solutions like Secure IT – SIEM make SIEM accessible and help organizations save the time and effort required to operate and maintain a SIEM.  

How SIEM Improves Security

One of the biggest benefits of SIEM is its security capabilities. Here are 3 ways our SIEM system can fortify an organization’s security.

1. Improves threat detection

Time is crucial when it comes to detecting threats; the longer a hacker remains undetected the more damage they can do. Therefore, it’s important for organizations to respond to threats as soon as possible.  SIEM can quickly detect potential threats which helps prevent security breaches.

SIEM uses built-in correlation rules and information from a global threat intelligence feed to identify potential threats. The correlation rules are a set of predefined sequences that indicate suspicious behaviour. For example, if a person is trying to login more than 5 times the correlation rule might flag it as suspicious. This would then generate a security alert that would warn your security team of potential malicious activity.

A SIEM is only as good as the threats it can detect. If a SIEM is not correlated to detect advanced threats, they may slip through. Integrating a global threat intelligence feed with SIEM ensures that the system is constantly updated with the latest threat intelligence activity. This is vital in ensuring that SIEM can detect and consequently protect against the latest evolving threats.

2. 24/7 Monitoring

The SIEM is constantly monitoring for unusual behaviours. Round-the-clock monitoring is important to ensure quick response to threats. SIEM also assists security teams in detecting threats because it is constantly monitoring the infrastructure.

Threats like malicious insiders are hard to detect but since SIEM is constantly monitoring for suspicious events it can analyze the pattern of behaviour of a user and determine if they’re acting suspicious.  For example, SIEM can detect a user accessing information they don’t normally access or combine seemingly unrelated events such as a user inserting a USB stick after accessing sensitive information.

3. Provides visibility

In order to understand the threats facing their infrastructure, organizations need clear visibility. It can be difficult for organizations to fully understand their infrastructure because there are many moving parts. Organizations may have a hybrid infrastructure that includes on-premise and cloud environments. As organizations grow they integrate new technology, which in turn increases their attack surface and leads to blind spots like shadow IT. Hackers like to take advantage of these hidden places in your network and exploit them.

SIEM provides organizations with real time visibility into all activity on their systems, networks and applications (whether on-premise or in the cloud) in one centralized view. This is crucial in helping organizations establish a baseline in understanding what constitutes normal behaviour and usage in an environment.  Since SIEM provides an overview of the network it can also detect unknown devices communicating within your network, helping to close the gaps on hidden devices in your network. 

For more information on how Secure IT – SIEM can help protect your business, contact us today.