What is SIEM?

Security information and event management (SIEM) is a tool designed to help organizations detect, respond to, and manage security threats in real time by collecting and analyzing log data from across your entire IT environment, such as servers, endpoints, applications, and network devices.

How does SIEM work?

SIEM takes the following steps to identify and respond to potential threats in real time:

1. Data collection: A SIEM gathers log and event data from a wide range of sources, including network devices, applications, security tools, databases and other systems. The system then consolidates this information into a centralized platform.
2. Data analysis: Next, the SIEM will sort and analyze log data, categorizing and correlating events. As part of this process, the SIEM will also identify any deviations from the behavioral rules or system activity defined by the organization’s IT teams.
3. Alerts: The system will then categorize deviations and alert security or IT analysts to further investigate the event. Common alerts may include “malware activity” or “failed login.” This provides a useful starting point for security teams, helping them route the alert to the correct team member and expedite response efforts.

What are the benefits of using SIEM?

SIEM is a powerful tool that helps organizations enhance security by continuously monitoring and detecting potential threats and supporting timely and effective response efforts. Specific benefits include:

Real-time threat detection and response

A SIEM continuously monitors network activity, establishing the foundation for a real-time threat detection alert and response capability.

Proactive threat hunting and vulnerability management

A SIEM also enables proactive threat hunting and vulnerability management—meaning the system can identify and respond to high-risk or anomalous activity before it escalates into a security incident. This helps the security team contain the attack and minimize its impact on the business and its customers.  

Reduced investigation time and operational costs

A SIEM uses AI-driven automation and machine learning to streamline investigation activity and automate routine, recurring tasks to optimize the work of security analysts. This has the dual benefit of reducing investigation time and lowering the cost of operating a security operations center (SOC).

Improved compliance

SIEMs often include built-in compliance reporting functionality that streamlines regulatory efforts. By automating this function, organizations can enhance compliance while also reducing costs. SIEMs can also be a useful tool during audits, enabling teams to quickly produce reports related to specific users, tools or time periods.

Enhanced security awareness and incident response

Taken together, SIEM’s real-time monitoring, proactive response, and compliance capabilities strengthen security awareness and incident response.

What are key features of a SIEM solution?

A robust SIEM solution offers a range of features designed to enhance security monitoring, streamline threat detection, and support effective incident response. Key features of a SIEM include:

Log management and data aggregation

SIEM solutions collect and aggregate log data from multiple sources, centralizing the information for fast analysis. By uniting data in this way, the SIEM establishes a more complete view of the organization’s IT architecture and helps teams take a more holistic approach to security.

Security monitoring and alerting

A SIEM continuously monitors event logs for abnormal activity and behavior, issuing alerts to security teams when potential threats are detected.

Threat intelligence and correlation

SIEM correlates data, including indicators of compromise and adversary tactics, techniques and procedures, from disparate sources to identify patterns that may indicate malicious activity.

Incident response and investigation

A good SIEM leverages network security monitoring, endpoint detection, response sandboxing, and behavior analytics to prioritize response efforts, streamline activity and identify the root cause of security events.

Data retention for compliance and reporting

A SIEM can create custom reports and dashboards for regulatory compliance and audit purposes. SIEMs also ensure long-term data retention requirements are met.

Evolving to Next-Gen SIEM

Since their introduction, SIEM tools have undergone significant evolution. This comes as a result of both an evolving threat landscape, as well as technology advances, such as cloud computing and the proliferation of intelligent automation and AI.

A Next-Gen SIEM is a cloud-native security solution designed for large-scale data environments. These systems offer rapid search performance, enhanced scalability, and lower latency as compared to traditional SIEM solutions.

Next-Gen SIEM solutions excel at detecting threats across various environments, including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid infrastructures. They can identify both known and unknown threats in real time and apply advanced analytics techniques, such as AI, machine learning, and behavior profiling, helping teams prioritize efforts and respond to events more quickly and with enhanced precision.

Overcoming the limitations of SIEM with Next-Gen SIEM

As organizations have increasingly embraced digital transformation and migrated to cloud environments, the limitations of traditional SIEM solutions have become more apparent.

For example, a traditional SIEM tends to generate a high volume of alerts, including false positives, that can be difficult for teams to investigate and diagnose. As a result, high-priority alerts may be ignored or delayed; teams may also waste time on false alerts.

The limitations of traditional SIEM have driven the evolution of this tool, ultimately leading to the creation of advanced next-gen solutions. Here we outline some of the core challenges of traditional SIEM systems and how Next-Gen SIEMs differ.

Key features of Next-Gen SIEM

Next-Gen SIEM solutions bring a host of advanced features that help make threat detection and response faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before. Key features of Next-Gen SIEM include:

What are SIEM use cases?

SIEM is an essential tool for monitoring, detecting, investigating, and responding to potential threats. Some key use cases include detecting the following types of cyberattacks:

Insider threats: An insider threat is a cybersecurity risk that comes from within the organization. These events are notoriously hard to detect because most security tools and solutions are not designed to detect suspicious behavior from legitimate users. Some SIEMs have Next-Gen capabilities like UEBA, which helps teams analyze user behavior and identify activity that may be indicative of an insider attack. This activity would typically go undetected by tools that are focused on external threats.

Malware/ransomware: SIEM tools also help identify, respond to and prevent external threats, such as malware and ransomware. For attacks of this nature, swift identification and response is the key to minimizing damage and disruption. By continuously monitoring all security systems and performing real-time analysis, SIEM systems are designed to surface issues earlier in the attack lifecycle, giving teams the information they need to respond swiftly and contain the attack.

Advanced threats/adversary activity: Taken together, SIEM’s real-time monitoring, proactive response, and compliance capabilities strengthen security awareness and incident response. As noted above, SIEMs’ continuous monitoring activity and data correlation across multiple sources enables teams to detect unusual patterns indicative of an APT. This will help the security team to surface APTs sooner and create a robust and effective response plan.

How to choose the right SIEM for your organization

There are many SIEM solution providers to choose from on the market today. Below we outline some key considerations to help organizations evaluate their options and select a vendor.

Cloud-based vs. on-premises SIEM solutions

Cloud-based SIEM solutions are often a more practical choice for modern enterprises because they offer scalability, flexibility, and lower maintenance demands compared to on-premises options. On the other hand, on-premises SIEM solutions provide some advantages, most notably greater control over data security and privacy. Before engaging with a vendor, security teams should understand their precise needs and goals for the SIEM and decide what option would best serve them: cloud-based, on-prem or hybrid.

Scalability and performance requirements

Cloud-based SIEMs can be easily scaled up or down to meet variable data processing needs.

In addition to scalability, teams may need to consider the SIEM's ability to handle high-volume data ingestion, its real-time processing capabilities, and its efficiency in generating alerts without false positives. Performance requirements like these are crucial to ensure the SIEM can effectively detect threats in complex environments without overwhelming security teams.

Integration with existing security infrastructure

Integration is a critical element when selecting any security system, but especially so for SIEMs since their entire purpose is to bring together the data from disparate sources and systems. When evaluating SIEM systems, teams should confirm that all existing tools, applications, and infrastructure elements can be integrated with the SIEM solution. They should also understand what steps the vendor is taking to ensure future tools can also be supported.

Vendor reputation and support

When choosing a SIEM, it's crucial to consider the vendor's offering and reputation across core areas, including system reliability, commitment to innovation, and customer support. Teams should research client testimonials and case studies as part of their decision-making process. They should also seek out industry awards and recognitions, as well as analyst ratings and reports to get a better sense of the tool’s capabilities and potential shortcomings, as identified by third-party experts.   

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Beyond the initial investment, IT teams should assess the total cost of ownership of the SIEM—including ongoing maintenance, upgrades, and scalability. As noted above, TCO may vary depending on if the team chooses a cloud or on-prem solution. Integration of next-gen capabilities, such as integrated SOAR, XDR and UEBA, will also impact price—though these features tend to be offset by lower operational costs through automation. Taking a detailed look at the cost of the tool and its ongoing operation, as well as how it will impact existing resources and workflows, is an essential budget consideration that will help determine the real value of the investment.

Implementing a SIEM solution

A trusted SIEM partner will play an important role in implementing the SIEM solution. Here we review key steps the security team should take when implementing a SIEM: 

Planning and scoping your SIEM deployment:

• Define the security goals and requirements of your organization.
• Map how the SIEM solution aligns with those specific needs and objectives.
• Identify the best deployment strategy (cloud, on-prem or hybrid).

Data source identification and integration:

• Identify and connect critical data sources, such as network devices, servers, and applications, to provide comprehensive visibility across the environment.

Rule and alert configuration:

• Configure detection rules and alerts to automatically identify and notify your team of potential security incidents.
• Evaluate and adapt rules to minimize noise and false positives so that teams can focus on high-priority alerts more easily.

Ongoing monitoring and maintenance:

• Regularly monitor and update the SIEM to ensure it remains effective in protecting against evolving threats.
• Review rules and alert configurations to cut down on false alerts and help teams surface high-priority events faster.

Integration with other security tools:

• Seamlessly integrate the SIEM with additional security tools to create a unified defense system.
• Monitor and test integration points over time to ensure that all systems remain fully functional, especially if a tool is upgraded or when a new feature is added.

Leveling up your organization’s SIEM Solution

Change is the only constant in cybersecurity, and the evolution of SIEM solutions is just another example. Traditional on-premises SIEM solutions must be equipped to manage the substantial levels of log ingestion and analysis required against increasingly sophisticated attack methods. 

Modern next-gen SIEM platforms provide substantial upgrades in performance and cost-effectiveness. They utilize state-of-the-art threat detection and automation for comprehensive security coverage, rapid incident response, and adaptation to constantly changing cyber threats. 

CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM can transform your security posture and significantly enhance your organization's ability to detect and mitigate threats in real time. For a deep dive into how to migrate to next-gen SIEM, download the free guide, Future-Proof Your SOC: A Migration Guide from Legacy to Next-Gen SIEM with CrowdStrike.