Businesses require maximum visibility to protect themselves from security threats. Security information and event management (SIEM) collates events and logs data in real time from various servers, network equipment, and system software to determine patterns, flag anomalies, and send alerts.
SIEM solutions are a vital part of the company’s cybersecurity framework. Therefore, the solutions must adequately align with the business needs. Selecting an appropriate solution depends on how well the companies understand their internal operations.
At the same time, businesses must communicate with appropriate resources internally to make an informed investment in SIEM services and products.
Here are a few factors businesses must consider while choosing a SIEM solution.
The Product Must Align with the Business Requirements
SIEM tools are available in two categories- managed and unmanaged. Managed services offer businesses dedicated expertise that helps them to monitor and control. The latter only encompasses technical log aggregation and generic alerting.
Businesses must dedicate a minimum of 1.5 FTE to vet alerts and tune the tool with an unmanaged SIEM. Since SIEM includes much noise, the non-threatening warnings block the way of actual incidents; therefore, it requires fine-tuning to maximize the benefits of the software. Companies must select a managed SIEM option if it lacks internal resources to dedicate tuning and monitoring SIEM tools.
The Product Must Align with the Budget
SIEM tools’ cost depends on the selected vendor and the organization’s size. With more devices on the network, hackers can access the network. Businesses must invest quickly in a SIEM solution for automating network monitoring.
At the same time, the type of SIEM program also affects the budget. An unmanaged SIEM software has a capital budget, while the managed one has an operational budget. While the unmanaged solution comes at a minimal expense, businesses cannot leverage the total value of SIEM unless it is architectured and maintained correctly.
Assess the Current Data Security Program
Before implementing SIEM solutions, businesses must prioritize additional security steps before investing in a solution. Companies must conduct annual network penetration tests to determine and mitigate security risks.
Security awareness training, risk registers, and vulnerability testing are the critical preventive measures that focus on maintaining network privacy.
Businesses must understand that SIEM does not work retroactively; it only produces logs and alerts post-implementation.
Additionally, businesses must prioritize SIEM over other reactionary activities, such as incident response plans (IRP) or redundant tabletop practices. An efficient response strategy would be baseless if companies cannot detect the breach. Lastly, an efficient SIEM solution will not secure the network if they have weak password policies.
Solutions Must Offer Threat Intelligence and Analytics Capabilities
Businesses must consider how the tool strategically integrates forensics knowledge with current security operations and applies ML and AI to the logs generated. ML can improve the process by learning from the host environment giving systems the required edge while performing specialized tasks.
Traditional SIEM solutions offer continuous data logging that relies on security alert tools. It enables robust capabilities to perform log trend analysis, forecasting, and threat hunting. More importantly, intuitive ML algorithms ensure ease and offer adequate support for security analysis.
At the same time, ML frees up time from the engineers directing them to focus on higher pay-off activities and threats. The solution must offer intelligent insights into network behavior and efficiently document suspicious activities that flag malicious intent.
Efficiency in Managing Logs and Correlating Security Incidents
An efficient SIEM tool should gather numerous logs from numerous sources, store them in a centralized location, and manage them per the security team’s requirements. Moreover, the solution must analyze every log generated.
Simultaneously, the tool must efficiently correlate security events and determine threats as per the equation offered. For example, if a brute force attack occurs, the tool must appropriately detect and fetch the logs and document the events by generating high alerts.
Select a Company That Offers IR Services & Forensics Capabilities with the SIEM Product
SIEM logs help businesses track and collect forensic data in the event of an incident. Alerts help them determine security events, and the logs allow them to identify the unauthorized point of entry. Moreover, the SIEM is less valuable if the businesses lack the expertise and resources to respond promptly to the alert.
A key advantage of employing a managed SIEM is that businesses have a dedicated expert in their corner. Security events are overwhelming; hence enlisting a third party who deals with these things regularly would be helpful.
Adequate Ingestion and Processing of Network Logs
Network logging activities generate vast data that needs rapid tracking, ingestion, and processing. Moreover, the data comes from various sources and in different formats. The data might come from firewalls, anti-virus software, and firewalls. Therefore, SIEM tools must efficiently digest and appropriately process the data from various sources.
Appropriate Deployment and Resource Usage
Good cooperation from numerous organizational departments is crucial for the SIEM tool to run successfully. If the deployment process is simplified, it will be easier for companies to get intra-company support. In addition, regarding selecting a correct SIEM, better utilization of resources is an essential factor.
Also Read: What Organizations Need to Know About the Security Implications of Excessive Data Privacy
Final Thoughts
Timeliness is crucial in cybersecurity events. In the event of DDoS attacks that staggers the websites and systems, businesses must ensure that these come back up as soon as possible. The longer the downtime, the more massive damage to the reputation with high revenue losses.
SIEM must be able to address all these attacks via real-time and historical security analysis in addition to inputs from various contextual data sources. At the same time, the IT security team must ensure that they are alert enough to detect potential threats and have essential updates.
Managing security is challenging. A robust SIEM solution ensures sustained success for businesses. At the same time, the success of a SIEM deployment relies on selecting the right SIEM solution. Amidst various SIEM tools with diverse capabilities, companies must choose a solution that resonates with their security requirements.
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