Systems Information & Event Management (SIEM) is essential to any modern business. It is a security technology that helps to detect, analyze, and respond to cyber threats in real time. Moreover, it comprises a combination of hardware and software solutions that monitor and analyze network activity and provide actionable insights.
This article will introduce you to SIEM, explaining its use and how to protect your organization from cyber threats. Using it, companies can gain valuable insight into their security posture and take proactive measures to protect their systems from malicious activity. Keep reading to learn more.
Introduction to Systems Information & Event Monitoring
Systems information and event monitoring (SIEM) is a network security technology that collects, analyzes, and reports logs from various security devices and applications. Moreover, SIEM solutions can assist organizations with threat detection and response activities by providing a broad overview of their security posture. You may also use it for compliance monitoring.
While its solutions can offer a high level of detail, they differ from forensic investigations or bug hunting. Companies that invest in these solutions have a holistic view of logs across their environments. Organizations that employ its solutions may have several event management consoles or tools in place but are not using systems information and event monitoring.
SIEM solutions can be broken down into four areas:
- Collecting logs and events
- Normalizing data
- Storing data in a central location
- Analyzing data across the entire environment
These solutions are a combination of hardware and software to monitor network activity and provide real-time alerts.
How Does SIEM Work?
The first step in implementing a SIEM solution is collecting logs from critical security devices. This step could include log files from firewalls, IDS/IPS systems, and data loss prevention systems.
Once these logs get collected, they will aggregate into a central location for analysis. This procedure may happen via a SIEM collector or external system service within the organization’s network. Therefore, when the logs are gathered, normalized, and centralized, SIEM solutions can begin to analyze the data.
A central feature of SIEM solutions is that they can correlate events and IP addresses. Additionally, this correlation can determine which devices or users may have been affected by an event. Furthermore, SIEM solutions can also identify malicious activity based on known threat intelligence and malicious IP addresses.
What Tools Does SIEM Use?
Logging and Event Correlation: Logging and event correlation are the two main functions of SIEM. Therefore, logging involves collecting logs from various devices and storing them in a central location for analysis. Event correlation is connecting related events that occurred across multiple devices and hosts.
Visualization: This tool allows users to view their logs and charts in a graphical format. It can be helpful when it comes to identifying unusual activity and viewing trends in data.
User and Entity Behavior Analysis (UEBA): This function uses machine learning algorithms to identify abnormal behavior on the network. UEBA tools can identify potential threats based on the type of activity occurring. They can identify possible ransomware attacks by detecting encrypted files.
Conclusion
Systems information and event monitoring (SIEM) is essential to any modern business. It is a security technology that helps to detect, analyze, and respond to cyber threats in real time.
Additionally, SIEM consists of hardware and software solutions that monitor and analyze network activity and provide actionable insights. Using SIEM, companies can gain valuable insight into their security posture and take proactive measures to protect their systems from malicious activity.