SIEM technology brings together two separate, earlier technologies called Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM). SIM focuses on collecting great volumes of data, while SEM organizes, identifies, and sometimes responds to threats.
Why Do Security Leaders Invest in SIEM Technology?
SIEM is the backbone of a successful Security Operations Center (SOC). It collects, normalizes, and analyzes data from across the organization’s IT infrastructure in a single, centralized location. This provides analysts with a single point of reference for identifying and responding to security risks.
Without SIEM technology in place, SOC analysts would have to conduct investigations using the tools and platforms that each business unit in the organization uses. That could mean navigating through hundreds of different applications.
SIEM aggregates data from other security tools, as well. The ability to clearly observe security data is vital for conducting thorough investigations and responding to security threats in real-time.
How Does SIEM Work?
SIEM platforms work by aggregating event data from every user, asset, and application in the network. This data usually comes in the form of logs. Log data provides in-depth visibility into what any particular asset or application is doing at any point in time.
However, log data does not come in a standard format. Every asset and application produces logs in different formats, with data structured in different ways. One of the challenges of SIEM implementation is normalizing all of those logs so the platform can understand them.
Once the log data is ingested, the platform analyzes it and generates alerts based on what it discovers. These alerts give security analysts information on security events, informing their investigations and helping them prioritize high-severity risks first.
Different SIEM platforms have different features, but most share the following core functionalities:
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Log Management
Log management encompasses the systematic collection, normalization, and analysis of log data sourced from diverse components in the organization’s IT infrastructure. SIEM product owners must make important decisions about where to store log data and how to structure it.
This is important because SIEM storage space is expensive. Storing all of your logs in a cloud-native SIEM platform can quickly stretch your budget past its limits. Eliminating redundant and low-value logs can help streamline costs significantly.
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Security monitoring and alerts
Generative alerts is a core functionality of any SIEM. Security analysts need to know when suspicious activities are occurring on the network. Next, they need to investigate those activities so the organization can respond appropriately.
SIEM platforms often provide additional features for responding to security incidents. Sometimes these features are built into the solution itself. In other cases, the SIEM supports native integration with Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) solutions or Extended Detection and Response (XDR) tools.
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Event correlation
The ability to correlate security events into a meaningful narrative is a vital SIEM feature. Cyberattacks do not exist in a vacuum. They involve a complex sequence of events that can include things like initial access, lateral movement, and malware execution.
Many security tools can detect and respond to these events. SIEM platforms tie them together into a cohesive picture. This enables analysts to identify the scope and severity of threats in a consistent way.
Next-Generation SIEM Capabilities
Early SIEM technology relied on static rulesets to trigger alerts and warn analysts of suspicious behavior. These rules followed basic logic applied universally across all users, assets, and applications. Unsurprisingly, they resulted in a large number of false positives resulting in alert fatigue.
Modern SIEM platforms leverage User Entity and Behavioral Analytics (UEBA) to filter out much of the noise. UEBA-enabled SIEM platforms may not automatically trigger alerts when they detect certain activities. Instead, they observe all the activity associated with a single user or asset and assign a dynamic risk score to it.
That risk score gauges how unusual that user or asset’s behavior is. The SIEM uses machine learning to build a baseline model and triggers alerts when it deviates too far from its established routine. This allows analysts to investigate threats they could not detect before — like malicious insiders and credential-based attacks.
Next-generation, cloud-native SIEM platforms like Rapid7 IDR provide a solid foundation for successful incident response. Platforms like this give analysts AI-driven alerts, in-depth attacker analytics, and comprehensive threat intelligence data as new threats emerge.
SIEM Implementation Challenges
Your SIEM platform has to connect to every log-generating device on your network. The SIEM implementation process can be incredibly challenging and complex. It requires specialist expertise that many organizations do not have in-house.
After connecting your entire IT infrastructure to the SIEM, you must also normalize incoming logs, verify the platform’s outputs, and configure detection rules that make sense for your specific security risk profile. Each of these steps comes with its own set of obstacles to overcome.
Improper SIEM implementation can lead to high costs, inaccurate insights, and security blind spots. Many organizations delay SIEM implementation simply because the process is too complex and risky to carry out.
However, reputable managed detection and response vendors have the skills and experience to transform SIEM implementation into a much more manageable process. Organizations with scalable access to proven product expertise can bypass many of the challenges associated with SIEM implementation.
Choose the Right SIEM Partner for Your Organization
Novawatch provides SIEM implementation services as part of its managed detection and response packages. Our team takes the difficulty and risk out of the implementation process so that your organization can enjoy the benefits of UEBA-enabled SIEM quickly and easily.
Find out more about how our SIEM expertise can help you make the most of your security tech stack. Make Novawatch your managed security partner and leverage best-in-class technologies against sophisticated threats.
