Supercharge Your Security with SIEMs: A Comprehensive Guide

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a technology that helps businesses aggregate historical and real-time security log and event data from various systems like host systems, applications, network, and security solutions in a single platform. The objective of a SIEM is to offer threat detection, compliance, and security incident management, and it does this by providing more awareness and visibility around IT environment security via a single dashboard. SIEM combines Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM) solutions to enable security teams to gain insights into attacks by reviewing tactics, techniques, procedures, and known indicators of compromise.

What is a SIEM?

SIEM helps organisations handle security events by aggregating log and security data from various sources, helping to detect, investigate, and respond to a rising number of security events. The technology also helps to manage all security challenges brought about by a hybrid environment and automate to reduce costs, avoid manual repetitive work, and respond more quickly to security events.

Problems That SIEM Solves

One of the most significant challenges faced by businesses is alert fatigue, which occurs when security analysts receive a high volume of alerts, causing them to overlook important ones. SIEM helps to address this by providing the necessary context that helps analysts differentiate between high and low-priority alerts. 

The other challenges include the difficulty of securing an environment that combines infrastructure on-premise, in the cloud, and at other locations, lack of automation, smart detection, and tool integration. 

Lastly, data retention can be a problem as companies tend to limit data retention to reduce the cost of long-term data storage.

Cloud-Native SIEM vs. Legacy SIEM

Legacy SIEM was built primarily for on-premises, then added cloud environments into the same technology. On the other hand, Cloud-Native SIEM, such as Google’s SIEM, was born and made for the cloud. An example of this is Google’s very own Chronicle SOAR. It scales queries to take a maximum of a few minutes, and there is a lower risk of undetected threats, lack of context, and enrichments. Additionally, the pricing model often discourages ingesting all security telemetry, leading to situations in which the security infrastructure has limited capabilities. However, with Google Cloud, businesses can bring extra data into their SIEM without incurring additional costs, making it more powerful.

Features to Consider When Selecting a SIEM Solution

Integration with other controls, artificial intelligence (AI), threat intelligence feeds, and predictive analytics are some critical features to consider when selecting a SIEM solution. Predictive analytics can help security teams identify trends and identify areas that require attention before any threats materialise.

Concluding Remarks

SIEM is a crucial technology for businesses looking to enhance their security posture by aggregating historical and nearly real-time security log and event data. With SIEM, security teams can detect, investigate, and respond to security events. When selecting a SIEM solution, businesses should look out for essential features such as integration with other controls, AI, threat intelligence feeds, and predictive analytics. Ultimately, SIEM plays a critical role in helping businesses safeguard their IT infrastructure and protect sensitive data.