What Is SIEM? - Security Information and Event Management

What is SIEM, and how does it work?

SIEM stands for security information and event management. SIEM works by correlating log and event data from systems across an IT environment. SIEM security tools generate prioritized alerts and enable automated responses to potential security incidents based on customized policies and data analytics.

What is the SIEM process?

The security incident and event management process:

• Collects security data from various sources such as operating systems, databases, applications, and proxies.
• Aggregates and categorizes data
• Uses analytics to detect threats
• Applies customized rules to prioritize alerts and automated responses for potential threats

What is the most useful kind of SIEM tool?

The most useful SIEM tool manages risk, streamlines compliance, and optimizes operations. Look for a SIEM product that offers:

• Easy integration with security tools
• Custom threat intelligence feeds
• Compliance reporting
• Machine learning
• Forensic analysis
• Automated response and remediation

What is the difference between SIEM and SOC?

The main difference between SIEM and SOC is that a security operations center (SOC) is a team of security professionals who monitor, analyze, and respond to incidents, while SIEM is a security tool. SOCs use a SIEM solution to glean actionable insights from potentially large volumes of event data.

Features of SIEM tools

Aggregate dashboard

SIEM platforms help visualize event data from applications, databases, servers, firewalls, and other systems to help monitor, detect, and respond to threats. Threat intelligence feeds are built into some SIEM systems, while other solutions support third-party feeds.

Log management

SIEM technology collects, normalizes, and analyzes log data to gain visibility into threats and incidents. Storing long-term data enables more effective analysis, reporting, and forensic investigations.

Threat detection

SIEM can be integrated with threat-hunting and detection tools to provide improved visibility into potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Explore threat hunting

Alerting

Predefined rules, aggregate threat intelligence, SIEM monitoring, and machine learning all enable SIEM solutions to filter and prioritize events, generating high-fidelity alerts for only the issues that matter most to an organization.

Incident response

Advanced analysis provided by SIEM solutions helps security professionals better interpret data, collaborate on cases, and respond to events. Full-featured SIEM solutions can be integrated with security orchestration and automation response (SOAR) technology to automate responses to threats.

Automation

SIEM software can be integrated with other security solutions—such as SOAR tools—to automate workflows and playbooks in response to incidents.

Compliance

SIEM products can aid regulatory security compliance by automating processes like monitoring data, maintaining data logs for auditing, and producing compliance reports.

Integration

SIEM solutions support integration with a variety of other security systems and tools. Advanced SIEM products support:

• Third-party threat intelligence feeds
• Cloud services
• SOAR tools
• User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA)

See Cisco integrations