SIEM Tools
SIEM is a tool that allows us to monitor our network traffic and provide real time analysis of security alerts generated by the applications.
What is SIEM Security?
A Security information and event management system is the foundation of most security processes in the modern security operations center (SOC). A SIEM saves security analysts the effort of monitoring many different systems and brings together their vast amounts of log data to form a coherent picture.
SIEM combines security information management (SIM), a first generation system that uses long term storage, analysis, and reports of log data; and security event management (SEM), a second generation system that includes correlation of events, notifications, real-time monitoring, and console views.
SIEM tools use correlation rules and statistical techniques to convert events and log entries into useful and actionable information.
Key features of a SIEM security solution includes:
- Near-real time visibility — of an organization’s security system through dashboards and other visual aids.
- Data consolidation — from various sources through event log management
- Events correlation — using boolean logic rules to add intelligence to raw data
- Automating security event notifications — analyzes security events and sends alerts to notify issues in real time.
The Importance of SIEM
Organizations use SIEM technologies for:
- Log management and retention
- Continuous security monitoring and incident response
- Case management
- Policy enforcement and violations.
How do SIEM tools work?
The SIEM collects and analysis log data to detect suspicious activity that may indicate the presence of a threat. This process works in three stages:-
- Data Collection— SIEM tools start by collecting and aggregating log data from the network of an organization, including security devices, systems, and applications.
- Consolidate and categorize — the system consolidates the logs into categories, separates successful and failed logins, malware activity, exploit attempts, and port scans.
- Data Analysis — categorized data is analyzed and compared to rules defining accepted behavior. If an event is deemed suspicious, an alert is sent to your security team.
Value of Next-Gen SIEM Solutions :-
UEBA in Modern SIEM Security
User and entity behaviour analytics (UEBA) is a new category of security solutions that can identify behavioural baselines and spot anomalies which might indicate security incidents. UEBA can detect security incidents that other tools can’t see, because they rely on predefined patterns or static correlation rules. Third-generation SIEM solutions come with UEBA capabilities built in.
Here are some common use cases of SIEMs with UEBA technology:
- Malicious insider — A user account with privileged access to IT systems that is abused by the account owner for personal gain. Insider attacks can be devastating and are invisible to most security tools. UEBA establishes a baseline for each user’s behaviour and can detect suspicious events that might indicate malicious intent.
- Compromised insider — An attacker who gains control of a user account and uses it to perform reconnaissance, plan, or actually attack organizational systems. UEBA can identify that the user account is behaving differently from normal and alert security staff.
- Incident and alert prioritization (alert triage) — SIEM security alerts are a huge burden on security analysts and alert fatigue is a challenge. UEBA can help reduce the burden of prioritizing alerts. It does this by combining alerts and signals from many tools, ranking alerts and incidents based on the amount of anomalous behaviour (their risk score), and adding layers of contextual data about the organization, for example, services or user accounts that access sensitive data.
- Data loss prevention (DLP) — DLP tools, like traditional SIEMs, create a high volume of alerts about every unusual event related to an organization’s sensitive data. UEBA tools can prioritize and consolidate DLP alerts by calculating risk scores using data from multiple tools, indicating which events represent anomalous behaviour.
SOAR in Modern SIEM Security
Security Orchestration, Automation and Response systems, another new technology bundled with third-generation SIEM solutions, have the following key capabilities:
- Orchestration — SOAR integrates with other security solutions, allowing them to retrieve data and also proactively perform actions. For example, it can investigate whether an email sender has a bad reputation by using a DNS tool to confirm the origin of the message.
- Automation — SOAR enables users to define security playbooks, which are codified workflows of security operations. When a known type of security incident occurs, the playbook can be activated and mitigation action can be taken automatically, such as scanning a file identified as malware and detonating it in a sandbox.
- Incident management and collaboration — When a SIEM generates a security alert, the SOAR component of the SIEM can add contextual information and evidence to help analysts investigate the issue, and organize this information in an incident timeline to make it easier to understand. They also allow analysts to collaborate and add insights or additional data that they discover as part of their investigation.
Conclusion
SIEM addresses the key processes of cybersecurity, establishing an all-in-one solution to detect advanced threats. SIEM functions include automating log monitoring, correlating data, recognizing patterns, alerting, and providing data for compliance and forensics. With cyber attacks becoming more numerous and sophisticated, SIEM tools provide a safety net that can catch threats left undetected by other solutions.
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