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In the past, when an organization had a security tool like a firewall or antivirus software, they were sure of protecting their web footprint. However, security attacks are becoming more complex and complicated for these standalone security tools to handle all by themselves.
Hence, there's a need for a higher level and more sophisticated web security tool like an SIEM platform to help an organization provide proactive security instead of passive. Below, we will be discussing the meaning of SIEM technology, how it works to detect malicious activity, and the advantages of using it.
Security information and event management, SIEM, is simply a security infrastructure or framework that helps organizations monitor, analyze, and respond to web threats before they can create any harm. This type of solution comes from the combination of two security frameworks to form a more sophisticated infrastructure. Security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) are the two concepts combined to form SIEM. In other words, it is a combination of managing security information and events to prevent the success of cyber threats.
SIEM platform key capabilities ensure the collection of data from all traffic sources around an organization network, analyze them, and detect when any traffic is abnormal or malicious. By bringing information and event monitoring to a centralized platform, it ensures that an organization monitors and analyzes its security situation in real-time.
Visibility is very important to an organization that wants to prevent or respond to cyber threats as soon as possible. Hence, Security operation centers (SOCs) are investing heavily in SIEM platforms to provide wholesome protection for their web activity. It is crucial to know that NDR (Network Detection and Response) platforms such as Stellar Cyber are also a part of SIEMs. Apparently, the major function of these NDR platforms is mainly monitoring, detecting, and communicating to the security teams about malicious network activity.
Moving on to how SIEM works, it is a more advanced form of an NDR platform, and it can never be passive in fighting threats. Unlike traditional web security tools, SIEMs don't wait for cyber-attacks to happen before acting. Instead, it is actively involved in the monitoring of an organization's web activity, and it even detects potential vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. Below is a more comprehensive overview of how a SIEM platform works.
The first step to SIEM detecting and intercepting a web security threat is log management, where a lot of processes happen before moving to the next step. This is usually the stage that is more concerned with the collection and management of log data to ensure proper visibility across an organization's network. The types of logs generated for management are usually in the syslog, JSON, and XML formats.
The second step within log management is the parsing and enrichment process — basically processing raw data to get more meaning or information. The raw data are enriched with more contextual information so as to enable the security team to get a better grasp of what happened. The last step in LOG management is usually to store data through a centralized repository for as long as possible — this data is usually important in the case of forensics investigations and analysis.
Another function or the work process of SIEM platforms is the correlation of events using the stored log data. The whole process of correlation to events is simply using what happened in the past to provide more context during analysis and forensic investigations. Correlation of events is simply using what happened in the past to provide more context of what is happening in the present.
By having a large database of logs, SIEMs can easily provide extensive monitoring of a platform, detect network threats, and provide immediate responses to these threats. Basically, this is where a subsection of SIEM platforms named NDRs comes in place. Apparently, NDRs like Stellar Cyber provide an organization with very sophisticated threat monitoring, detection, and response. These solutions also reduce the time spent on mitigating threats by providing clear instructions on how the security team can handle them.
Below are some of the benefits organizations can gain from using SIEM platforms to provide web security to their activity:
One of the major advantages of using a security tool like SIEM is that it provides a comprehensive visibility of all the activities going on in an organization's network. A SIEM is not made up of one tool — it is a combination of different security tools that ensures a holistic coverage of all the things happening in a network.
One of the reasons many organizations are turning towards SIEMs is because there's virtually no limitation to the amount of threats this system can detect. Some examples of the type of threats this security solution can detect are insider attacks, phishing, advanced persistent threats (APTS), ransomware, and many others.
A benefit of using SIEM in an organization is the rate of automation it provides, and this makes the detection and mitigation of security threats much faster. The security team of an organization won't have to border themselves about manually detecting threats or correlating data — their work will be more on strategizing.
If an organization is keen on reducing metrics such as mean time to detect (MTTD) and MTTR, then it will have to deploy technologies such as SIEM. Apparently, this technology reduces the amount of time it takes for the security team to detect and respond to a threat.
In many countries, some businesses are required to provide evidence and audits with regard to how they handle threats. SIEMs, being part of the security framework of a business, ensure they have the necessary data required for compliance or regulatory audits.
Security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) came together to form the technology SIEM. It combines information and event management to provide holistic monitoring, analysis, and detection of a cyber threat.
Wrapping up, this type of security tool is not passive, as it constantly collects log data, stores them, and compares them to know if network activity is normal or not. There are many benefits a user will gain from using this technology, such as improved visibility, automation of security processes, and many others.
