SIEM Solutions - Definition & Overview

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) was coined back in 2005 by Amrit Williams and Mark Nicolett or Gartner. SIEM has since then expanded and grown into a necessary solution for any IT team. The term actually combines two previous cybersecurity acronyms: SIM and SEM.

• Security Information Management (SIM): The process of utilizing computer logs in order to analyze, collect, and monitor security-related data

• Security Event Management (SEM): SEM centralizes computer log data from multiple sources in order to manage events and improve detection of events through an incident response process

Together, SIEM provides real-time analysis of security threats and alerts that are generated by your sources (network hardware, applications, and endpoints). Security teams gain both insight and a track record of their IT events that provide log management uses, data analysis, and aggregation.

SIEM solutions are tools that help implement SIEM capabilities into your network. Some typical function of SIEM tools will:

• Improve your log collection capabilities

• Allow you to achieve compliance with auditing and reporting

• Collect, analyze, and allow you to present security-related data

• Provide real-time analysis of security alerts

• Provide you with response and security operations

• Include automated incident-response times

• Give you the ability to customize automated alerts

As IT organizations expand and grow, so too does their need to deploy more hardware and applications that, in turn, generate a huge volume of computer logs. In order to protect their enterprise from cyberattacks and cyber threats, companies utilize a variety of disparate applications and protective software that protect and monitor various aspects of your networks.

SIEM tools act as a kind of manager and integrations layer that functions on top of your existing infrastructure and security tools. SIEM software connects all the most important security data from the various applications that protect your business, while at the same time displaying said data in easily readable formats.

Here are some of the ways SIEM solutions help keep your business safe:

• Log collection: SIEM solutions making things easy by aggregating systems logs and security data from the various applications and sources into one, unified place

• Normalization: SIEM tools will normalize your logs by formatting them into a standardized format

• Notifications and alerts: Automated notifications and security alerts give businesses real-time updates on any detected threats

• Security incident detection: SIEM tools solve security incident detection challenges by utilizing log correlation, threat intelligence, and anomalous user behavior analytics to quickly recognize pattern deviations or unusual activity

• Threat response workflow: Past security events can be easily managed through SIEM workflow responses

Plug in capabilities: SIEM solutions support plug-ins, third-party apps, and other software for easy customization

When deciding on an SIEM solution, there are a few necessary tools and capabilities that you want to make sure your solution offers.

A competent, reliable, and state-of-the-art SIEM solution delivers superior incident responses and security outcomes through the following capabilities:

• Log data management: Store and manage all aggregate data in one place, allowing you to centralize all log data and disparate systems that can be viewed and correlated by security analysts

• Compliance reporting: Sophisticated SIEM tools can automatically report on IT operational, compliance, and security performance

• Threat intelligence: While it’s still difficult for SIEM tools to discover external threats, a competent solution will be able to gather some threat intelligence and are compatible with plugins in order to collaborate and bolster your ability to identify external threats

• Alert notification customization: Automated security alert notifications can give you real-time updates on any inconsistencies, and customizable alerts will allow you to understand the severity and urgency of the attack sooner

Useful dashboards: Dashboard features allow for simplified, real-time monitoring that can often be customized to prioritize the most important data. Dashboards increase overall visibility of your network by allowing for real-time human monitoring to take place.

Sumo Logic is the SIEM cutting-edge choice that can both complement or replace your existing SIEM tool.

Sumo Logic’s state-of-the-art functionality, organizational capabilities, automated tools, machine learning applications, and advanced forensics insights will give you everything you need to protect your networks and analyze your data with ease and efficiency.

Try Sumo Logic today.