Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) is the process of detecting, monitoring, logging, and analyzing security events or incidents in an IT environment in real-time.
A quality SIEM managed service provider provides a comprehensive and centralized view of the security scenario of the IT infrastructure.
Managing security incidents and events is sometimes called managing security information. SIEM is a tool that helps keep your computer and data safe. It can detect and alert you to potential threats or problems, like someone trying to access your account without permission.
Features of a SIEM
SIEM is created with the help of computer programs, equipment, tools, or a mix of these things. In general, there are six main features of a SIEM system:
1 – Storage: Storing data for longer periods of time so that decisions can be made based on more complete data sets.
2 – Dashboards: Used to analyze (and visualize) data in an attempt to identify patterns or targeted activity or data that does not fit a normal pattern.
3 – Bundling: Sorting data into bundles that are meaningful, similar, and share common characteristics. The goal is to transform data into useful information.
4 – Alerting: When data is collected or identified that triggers certain reactions—such as alerts or potential security issues – SIEM tools can activate certain protocols to notify users, such as alerts sent to a dashboard, automated email, or text message.
5 – Data aggregation: Once a SIEM is deployed, data can be collected across any number of objects, including servers, networks, databases, software, and email systems. The aggregator also serves as a consolidating source before data is sent for correlation or stored.
6 – Compliance: Protocols can be set up in a SIEM to automatically collect data required to comply with company, organization, or government policies.
Security information management (siem): A long-term perspective
The growing number and alarming severity of data breaches in recent years have led to a sharp increase in cybersecurity spending in most corporate organizations.
With the need to invest in advanced technologies as soon as possible, it is becoming increasingly important to understand what solutions exist and whether they are adequate.
User behavior tools are becoming popular in security. One of these tools is SIEM, which collects information from logs. It finds out what’s typical and what’s not. Then it can tell if someone is doing something bad or strange.
Read more about this in “SIEM: A Market Snapshot“. This information will help you choose a provider of SIEM managed service with more confidence and take a careful approach to the buying process.
How does SIEM differ from managing and monitoring the general event log?
Question…
How is a SIEM different from managing and monitoring a general event log?
Answer…
In some ways, security information and event management (SIEM) is different from the usual, average event log management that companies use to analyze vulnerabilities and network performance. However, as a kind of umbrella term for many technologies, SIEM is based on the fundamental principle of managing and monitoring event logs. The biggest difference may be in the actual methods and features used.
In general, SIEM is a combination of security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM). The chain means that SIEM systems include many general digital log collection functions and more specific systems that put user events into context.
For example, an SEM or security event feed can be set up to collect various types of specific reports of account logins that occurred at a certain access level, at a certain time, or in a certain pattern that can be used by network administrators to identify a threat or to address various types of administrative issues.
However, the Security Information Management System provides broader reports based on all aggregated data collected about network traffic.
Some experts have expressed ideas about how a SIEM managed service provider in 2023 could replace a conventional event log monitoring tool.
For example, some believe that the main value of a SIEM lies in more specific reports and more specific features that reveal more information about the results obtained on the network.
If the event log monitoring and management can offer a general view of what is generated by the logging process, then SIEM tools can offer a lot of intrinsic value in terms of actually getting involved in network activity and seeing what is happening on the network.
Why do systems benefit from event log monitoring?
Monitoring event logs is helpful for network systems because it helps administrators understand what is happening on the network. UnderDefense notes that even small networks can really benefit from event log monitoring to be more efficient and avoid serious security and other issues.
One of the basic principles of event log monitoring is that it allows administrators to look for patterns of events, rather than simply storing logs that may never be analyzed. This applies to things like authentication, storage processes, data queries, etc.
Monitoring the event log, instead of just passively logging events, helps to identify when something bad is happening on the network.
Event log monitoring also helps administrators cross-index or correlate individual occurrences of certain problems.
For example, network administrators can look for instances of RAID failures that can occur when a particular disk drive fails. They can view invalid logos or authentication records to see if someone is trying to gain unauthorized access. They can view server performance to ensure that data requests are being processed efficiently. They can also perform certain types of security checks and analyses to identify vulnerabilities in the system.
Security event management
Definition of security event management
SEM is a way to watch for problems in computer systems and let people know about them. It involves finding issues, keeping track of them, and telling others about them. SEM allows you to log and evaluate events and helps security administrators or system administrators analyze, adapt, and manage information security architecture, policies, and procedures.
SEM is primarily a security management method to analyze data collected from security events. SEM is usually used with a special program that works with all the devices that people use, like computers and phones, and with the things that companies use to protect their networks, like firewalls and servers. This takes information from everything connected and programs like logging software. We look at information about what happened and use special tools to figure out if there’s anything that might hurt us or cause a problem.
Nowadays, SEM processes are mostly used together with security incident management to create one security system called SIEM.