A significant increase in integrated technology over the past 20 years has provided a few operational challenges for many large and small enterprises. Complex systems today need to work together seamlessly to do more at a faster pace and with a lower cost to operate. However, this increase in efficiency can also expose you to various hidden threats.
Nearly every day, a new major hack or breach hits the media. Unfortunately, without the proper technology, your IT security team could be wasting time identifying if you’re vulnerable or even if you have been compromised.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions can help identify security threats and vulnerabilities before they disrupt business operations. However, many implementations can be complicated and require high-level in-house security expertise. So, what exactly is SIEM and why do I need it?
SIEM can be a valuable tool for clients with regulatory requirements, working in high-risk industries (healthcare, utilities, financial), or wanting their “house” as protected as possible. In simple terms, SIEM is similar to your home security alarm that connects to the police department. When you think cyber, the SIEM is your house alarm. The SIEM monitors the network, filters out non-critical data, and alerts you to a potential threat. This system monitors windows, doors, and motion detectors; it effectively watches all vulnerable access points.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is an additional service to defend yourself. MDR is the police monitoring notifications and reacting to the alerts, sending help before it’s too late. SIEM with MDR is considered a Co-Managed SIEM with the police working together as part of your cohesive security plan to help you defend your home. When paired together, you have a robust solution for your client.
SIEM solutions can be stored on-premise within the organization or reside in the cloud. Additionally, SIEM can detect the risk level of any given alert. You can set these alerts using a predefined set of low or high priority rules. For example, a user account that generates 15 failed login attempts in 10 minutes could be flagged as suspicious but set at a low priority because it was probably made by the user who forgot his login credentials. This helps your IT security team to prioritize events and focus on immediate risks, reducing their time accordingly.
SIEM offers four principal functions:
- Log Management. Collects data from multiple sources, including servers, network devices, domain controllers, or antivirus/antimalware events.
- Event Correlation and Analytics. Aggregates data and identifies patterns.
- Monitoring and Alerting. Classifies abnormal behavior from the analysis and alerts immediately so appropriate actions can be taken.
- Generate compliance reports for HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOX, and other compliance standards.
Reasons to Deploy a SIEM Solution
While comparing your home security to SIEM is a relatively simple analogy, your business security setup is not much different. Information, resources, assets, and activities are all valuable. Therefore, SIEM is an important piece of your security strategy and makes it easier to manage security.
A SIEM Solution can:
- Reduce Amount of Resources. Filters large amounts of security data while prioritizing security alerts, reducing the amount of manual review.
- Reduce Mean Time to Detect and Respond. Actively monitors solutions across your entire infrastructure, significantly reducing the amount of time required to identify and react to potential network threats and vulnerabilities.
- Interdepartmental Efficiencies. With a single, unified view of system data, teams can collaborate efficiently when responding to potential events and security incidents.
- Up to Date Threat Intelligence Feeds. SIEM solutions can successfully mitigate modern-day security breaches such as insider threats, phishing attacks, data exfiltration and DDoS attacks.
Today’s threats and compliance guidelines require large and small organizations to collect, correlate, and analyze security information from IT systems to enable rapid detection and response. Without this continuous, holistic monitoring, critical security events from your servers, routers, and other network devices go unnoticed. As a result, successful breaches can go undetected for more than 200 days. And these breaches are the perfect way to steal the sensitive data of your customers and employees.
Get the Most out of Your SIEM Implementation
When it comes to your security and compliance, a third-party provider with extensive knowledge and experience can help you navigate today’s cybersecurity landscape. A reputable provider can work with you to understand your business goals and help develop a strategic plan to deploy a cost-effective platform and solution that will meet your security and compliance needs.
