What is SIEM
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is a solution that helps organizations detect, analyze and respond to security threats before they jeopardize business operations, combining Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM) into one in the safety management system. SIEM technology collects event log data from a wide range of sources, uses real-time analysis to identify activities that deviate from norms, and takes appropriate actions, enabling rapid response to possible cybersecurity issues while meeting compliance requirements.
Security information and event management (SIEM) software helps IT security professionals protect their corporate networks from cyberattacks. A SIEM solution collects log data from all infrastructure components in an organization (routers, switches, firewalls, servers, PCs and devices, applications, cloud environments, etc.), then it analyzes the data and provides insights to security administrators, To effectively mitigate security attacks.
SIEM solutions
The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving. Security information and event management solutions have become must-have tools for organizations to protect their networks from unprecedented attacks. Log360 is a unified SIEM solution with integrated DLP and CASB capabilities that helps administrators detect, prioritize, investigate and respond to security threats.
How SIEM solutions work
SIEM solutions use agentless and agent-based mechanisms to collect logs, time-stamped records of events generated by every device and application in the network. After the logs are aggregated in SIEM software, they are normalized and analyzed using correlation, machine learning algorithms, and other techniques to detect suspicious activity.
Benefits of a SIEM Solution
- Faster, more efficient security operations : Helps discover and prioritize security threats; automatically responds to known threats and reduces mean time to resolution (MTTR) attacks.
- Optimize network operations : Monitor all network activity and store log data for root cause analysis and troubleshooting.
- Cyber Resilience : Through log forensics and impact analysis, it helps organizations quickly restore business after a breach or security incident, and instantly generates incident reports to avoid compliance penalties.
- Compliance compliance and management : Map the requirements of various compliance regulations to security operations; audit-ready compliance report templates and compliance violation alerts to help comply with regulatory requirements.
SIEM Solution Use Cases
- Threat Detection : Detect security threats using a rule-based log correlation engine, threat modeling framework (MITER ATT&CK) integration, and anomaly detection.
- Anomaly Detection : Uncover advanced persistent threats and sophisticated attacks using AI and ML-driven User and Entity Behavior Analysis (UEBA).
- Cloud Security : Protect multi-cloud environments by auditing security events and enforcing security policies for accessing cloud resources.
- Compliance Audits : Demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements and generate audit-ready reports with just a few clicks.
- Security Analytics : Use analytics dashboards to continuously monitor security events from different sources in your network.
- Endpoint Protection : Proactively monitor and protect your endpoints from cyber threats.
Capabilities of a SIEM Solution
Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions provide a holistic view of all activity occurring within the IT infrastructure by monitoring network activity and employing threat intelligence and user and entity behavior analysis (UEBA) to detect and mitigate attacks.
- log management
- event management
- Privileged Access Auditing
- threat intelligence
- cloud security
- User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
- data protection
log management
Log management involves the collection, normalization, and analysis of log data to better understand network activity, detect attacks and security incidents, and meet IT regulatory requirements. For effective log analysis, SIEM solutions employ different processes such as log correlation and forensics, which helps in detecting data breaches and attacks in real-time. Log management also includes secure archiving of log data to retain logs for a custom period of time.
event management
A security incident is an event that is abnormal to normal activities in the network. The incident can put an organization's sensitive data at risk and may lead to data leakage or attack. Incident management includes detecting and mitigating security incidents.
Incident detection is the process of identifying security threats occurring on a network, and administrators can detect incidents using various techniques such as log correlation, UEBA, and threat analysis.
Incident resolution refers to resolving incidents or attacks in the network and restoring the network to a functional state. SIEM solutions offer a variety of workflows that can be automated when an alert is triggered, which can go a long way in preventing attacks from spreading laterally within the network.
Privileged Access Auditing
A privileged user account is an account with administrator privileges. These permissions can allow users to install, remove, or update software; modify system configuration; create, modify, or change user permissions; and more.
Privileged accounts are critical to network security because just one compromised privileged user account can allow an attacker to gain more access to network resources. Tracking and auditing the actions of privileged users and generating real-time alerts for unusual activity is critical. Monitoring privileged user accounts can help track and prevent insider attacks because these accounts have the authority to observe the activities of other users on the network. It could be a potential threat if a user tries to elevate their privileges. A SIEM solution can detect such behavior and audit the activities of privileged users to enhance network security.
threat intelligence
Threat intelligence is critical to preventing attacks from happening, not reacting to them after they happen. Threat intelligence combines knowledge gained from evidence gathered from various threats, contextual information, indicators, and operational responses to generate specific instances of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs). It can also provide information about tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) involved in new threats, and can monitor current network activity for unusual patterns. Threat intelligence combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to distinguish between regular and irregular patterns in a network to determine whether activity poses a threat to the network.
cloud security
Cloud security involves protecting data and infrastructure hosted on cloud platforms. When it comes to security, cloud platforms are just as vulnerable as on-premises platforms. SIEM solutions help IT security administrators protect cloud platforms by detecting network anomalies, unusual user behavior, unauthorized access to critical resources, and more.
User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
UEBA in a SIEM solution is usually based on ML or AI and analyzes the normal work patterns of users, or the typical way a particular user accesses the network on a daily basis. It detects deviations from normal behavior, raises an alert, and immediately notifies security administrators.
The more information a SIEM solution processes from different sources such as routers, firewalls, domain controllers, applications, databases, and any computing device in the network, the more precise anomaly detection becomes over time. UEBA uses ML techniques and AI algorithms to process information, understand threat patterns, and determine if a particular pattern in the network is unusually similar to threats that have occurred before. From this detection, UEBA helps generate real-time alerts and leverages automation in threat prevention to make it more reliable.
data protection
One of the primary goals of security professionals is to prevent the loss or leakage of sensitive data, and SIEM solutions help detect, mitigate, and prevent data breaches by continuously monitoring user behavior. A SIEM solution tracks access to critical data and identifies unauthorized access or access attempts, it also watches for privilege escalation in user accounts and any changes made to data by those accounts. When these detection capabilities are combined with workflow management, security administrators can configure SIEM solutions to prevent malicious activity in the network.
Components of a SIEM Architecture
A SIEM solution consists of various components that help security teams detect data breaches and malicious activity by continuously monitoring and analyzing network devices and events.
- data aggregation
- Security Data Analysis
- Correlation and security event monitoring
- Forensic Analysis
- Incident Detection and Response
- Real-time incident response or alert console
- threat intelligence
- User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
- IT Compliance Management
data aggregation
This component of the SIEM solution is responsible for collecting log data generated by multiple sources in the corporate network such as servers, databases, applications, firewalls, routers, cloud systems, and more. These logs contain records of all events that occurred in a particular device or application, collected and stored in a centralized location or data store.
Various SIEM log collection techniques include:
- Agent-based log collection
- Agentless log collection
- API-based log collection
Agent-based log collection
In this technique, an agent is installed on every network device that generates logs. These agents are responsible for collecting logs from devices and forwarding them to the central SIEM server. In addition to these responsibilities, they can also filter log data at the device level according to predefined parameters, parse them, and convert them into a suitable format before forwarding. This custom log collection and forwarding technique helps optimize bandwidth usage.
Agent-based log collection methods are mainly used in closed and secure areas where communication is limited.
Agentless log collection
This technique does not involve deploying agents in any network devices. Instead, configuration changes must be made in the appliances so that they can send any generated logs to the central SIEM server in a secure manner. In devices such as switches, routers, and firewalls, the installation of third-party log collection tools is usually not supported, so it becomes difficult to collect log data through agents. In such cases, agentless log collection techniques can be used. It also reduces the load on network devices as no additional agents need to be deployed.
API-based log collection
In this technique, logs can be collected directly from network devices with the help of application programming interfaces (APIs). Virtualization software provides APIs that enable SIEM solutions to collect logs from virtual machines remotely. Additionally, when companies move from on-premises software to cloud-based solutions, it can be difficult to push logs directly to a SIEM because the service is not connected to any physical infrastructure. When this happens, cloud-based SIEM solutions leverage APIs as an intermediary to collect and query network logs.
Security Data Analysis
A SIEM solution comes with a security analytics component that primarily includes real-time dashboards that visually present security data in the form of graphs and charts. These dashboards are automatically updated, helping security teams quickly identify malicious activity and resolve security issues. With the help of these dashboards, security analysts can detect possible anomalies, correlations, patterns, and trends in the data, and gain various insights into the events that occur in real time. SIEM solutions also provide users with the ability to create and customize their own Dashboard options.
Another aspect of this security analytics component is the predefined reports, typically SIEM solutions come bundled with hundreds of predefined reports that help provide visibility into security events, detect threats, and simplify security and compliance sex review. These reports are primarily built on known Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), but can also be customized to meet internal security needs.
Most SIEM solutions also provide users with the option to filter, search, and drill down on these reports, set a report generation schedule according to the user's needs, view data in tabular and graphical form, and export reports in different formats.
Correlation and security event monitoring
A correlation engine is one of the most important components in a SIEM solution, collecting log data to analyze any relationship that may exist between different network activities, common attributes or patterns, using predefined or user-defined correlation rules. The correlation engine is able to put together different security events to provide a holistic view of security attacks. They are able to detect suspicious activity, signs of intrusion or potential breaches in the network early on, and SIEM systems generate alerts for these activities.
Example of a correlation rule : "Trigger an alert if a user succeeds in a login attempt after multiple failed login attempts within a short period of time."
Most SIEM solutions come with predefined correlation rules built on top of IoC. However, as attackers continue to use more advanced techniques to break into systems, the rules must be revised and improved on a regular basis, or they will become outdated. Building correlation rules requires a deep understanding of attacker behavior and strategies.
Forensic Analysis
This component of a SIEM solution is used to perform root cause analysis and generate incident reports that provide a detailed analysis of an attack attempt or ongoing attack, helping businesses take appropriate remedial action immediately.
Despite having the best defense mechanisms in place, businesses are not always able to stop all cyberattacks. However, businesses can conduct forensic analysis to reconstruct the crime scene and determine the root cause of the breach. Because log data contains a record of all events that occurred in a particular device or application, it can be analyzed for traces left by malicious attackers.
A SIEM system helps security teams browse logs, generate forensic reports, and discover when a specific security breach occurred, the systems and data that were compromised, the hackers behind the malicious activity, and the entry points.
This component also helps organizations meet certain compliance requirements, such as storing and archiving log data for long periods of time, and the ability to conduct forensic investigations of it.
Incident Detection and Response
event detection
This module of the SIEM solution deals with detecting security incidents. A security incident is an attempted or successful exfiltration of data by an unauthorized party in a network, or a violation of an organization's security policies. Denial of service attacks, misuse of data and resources, unauthorized privilege escalation, and phishing attacks are some common examples of security incidents. These events must be detected and analyzed, and appropriate actions taken to address security issues while ensuring continuity of business operations. During incident detection, organizations strive to keep mean time to detect (MTTD) as low as possible to reduce the damage done by attackers. Incident detection can be performed using the following techniques:
- event correlation
- threat intelligence
- User and Entity Behavior Analysis
incident response
This module of the SIEM solution is responsible for the remedial actions taken to resolve security incidents when they are detected. With businesses facing a plethora of security issues every day and attackers employing more sophisticated techniques, incident response has become a challenging venture. Reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR) is a top priority for every business. Some incident response techniques include:
- Automatically respond to events using workflows
- Conduct forensic analysis
Real-time incident response or alert console
SIEM solutions perform log collection and correlation activities in real-time; if any suspicious activity is detected, an alert is sent immediately, and incident response teams take immediate action to mitigate the attack or prevent it from happening.
Alert notifications can also be sent in real time via email or SMS and can be categorized according to the priority assigned to them: high, medium or low. Workflows can be assigned to security events so that when an alert is raised, the corresponding workflow will be executed automatically.
threat intelligence
Threat intelligence provides the contextual information needed to identify different types of cybersecurity threats and take appropriate actions to prevent, address or mitigate them. By understanding the source of an attack, the motivation behind it, the tactics and methods used to carry it out, and signs of compromise, organizations can better understand threats, assess risk, and make informed decisions.
This component also helps security administrators perform threat hunting, the process of actively searching the entire network for any threats or IOCs that might evade security systems.
User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
This component helps to detect security incidents. Traditional security systems are rapidly becoming obsolete as attackers continue to develop new techniques to break into networks. However, organizations can protect themselves from any type of cyber threats with the help of machine learning techniques.
UEBA components employ machine learning techniques to develop behavioral models based on the normal behavior of users and machines across the enterprise. This behavioral model is developed for each user and entity by processing large amounts of data obtained from various network devices. Any event that deviates from this behavioral model will be considered anomalous and will be further evaluated for potential threats. A risk score will be assigned to a user or entity; the higher the risk score, the greater the suspicion. Based on the risk score, a risk assessment is performed and remedial activities are carried out.
IT Compliance Management
When it comes to data protection and security, generally companies should meet the required standards, regulations and guidelines set by various regulatory bodies. These regulatory requirements vary by industry type and region of operation. If the company does not comply, it will be penalized.
To ensure organizations meet all compliance requirements set by governments to protect sensitive data, SIEM solutions include a compliance management component. Proactive measures should also be taken, such as employing techniques to identify anomalies, patterns, and cyber threats to protect sensitive data from compromise.
Log360 is a unified SIEM solution that provides intuitive security analytics, ML-driven UEBA, advanced threat analytics, CASB, integrated compliance management, and security automation and response, reducing mean time to detection by automating threat detection and response ( MTTD) and MTTR to help administrators simplify security operations.