What is SIEM?
SIEM tools have evolved a lot beyond log-management and now includes features such as event management as well as security information. This has given it the term SIEM. There are vendors who are adding advanced analytics, machine learning as well as other analytic methods to this software. But let us first understand the basics of What is SIEM and How it works? and how it works?
How Does SIEM Work?
SIEM is collecting and aggregating the data which is generated throughout the organization from configured devices. This will include the logs from IT infrastructure, the host systems, and the application to the security and the network devices like antivirus and firewalls. These logs are then sent to the collector which runs on a virtual machine. These logs are fed to the SIEM which then consolidates the log data and parses it and then categorizes it into event types. These are run against a set of rules to check for illegitimate traffic and then alerts are created.
![What is SIEM and How it works?](/new-assets/images/what-is-siem-and-how-it-works.png)
The software works by identifying and categorizing these events and incidents and then analyzes them. There are two main objectives of a SIEM software, they are:
- To provide analytic reports on events and incidents that are security-related such as failed and successful logins, malicious activities and other possible malware and
- To send alerts if there is evidence of activity in the analysis against the rulesets that have been predetermined and which activity indicates a possible security issue.
How to select the Best SIEM tools and vendors?
The dominant vendors of the SIEM market are Splunk, IBM, and HPE. This is based upon the worldwide sales of their solutions. Apart from these top three players in this industry, there are several other good solution providers such as Alert Logic, LogRhythm, Intel, ManageEngine, Solar Winds, Trustwave, and Micro Focus.
An organization needs to check out products and select them based on the objectives and goals that they have determined for their business. If you are looking for a solution for compliance only then features such as reporting are quite valuable. The set of features for an organization that wants SIEM as a Service for advanced security would differ.
The choice of vendor also varies depending upon the size of data that your business software would have to handle. If your business is looking for a SIEM software with amazing threat hunting then it is better to opt for top tools with data visualization features and advanced search capabilities.
Organizations that are security leaders want to look into numerous other factors too such as whether they will be able to support the tool, how much data would be there in the system, what would be the cost factor etc. these are some of the common questions that you need to ask while evaluating multiple vendors for your SIEM needs. It is also a common practice to have two separate SIEM solutions, one for threat detection and one for compliance.
Maximizing the value of your SIEM:
Most organizations use SIEM software basically for investigating and tracking the event which has already happened. This is because the business leaders want to know about what happened and what was the cause of breaches.
But it is important to use this technology for threat detection and respond to it in real-time. This way you can prevent cyber-attacks and hacking and avoid losing too. With advanced capabilities of SIEM tools, you can now detect a threat quite fast and get hold of malicious activity accurately.
But many organizations fail to utilize the capabilities of SIEM tools to its fullest. This is because they do not have expert resources to manage, implement, and fine-tune the software and use the resource-intensive SIEM tools.
Also, SIEM tools need quality data for better threat detection. If you are able to give a bigger data source then it is much better. But most businesses fail to provide correct data. Also, there is a limit of the software itself as it is not accurate in checking what is a potential threat or an acceptable activity. So many times, security professionals chase false alerts to a great extent. But then they tend to skip the alerts and sometimes miss out even on real threat alerts.
SIEM systems are still in the nascent stage and there is a lot to explore in it. But the organizations that are implementing SIEM software should employ efficient staff and provide proper data and make sure that they utilize the SIEM software to its fullest.
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