Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) in the cybersecurity domain started out as a compliance tool but has now evolved into an advanced threat detection platform for organisations. During the development journey of SIEM tools, there was a brief period when it was considered that SIEM is ‘dead’ but it was not because of the absence of the need for it but because SIEM's fundamental capabilities needed an upgrade.
As cybercriminals are tightening their grasp on techniques to break open virtually impenetrable security infrastructures, SOCs all over are looking for powerful, innovative ideas to defend their systems. Enterprises in 2020 still need top SIEM products but the need of the hour is inter-functional technologies that operate in conjunction with one another to boost efficiency and make the investigation and response process smoother.
Here is everything you need to know about the basics of SIEM tools and how SIEM open source tools do not fare well in this high-risk cyber era - The Ultimate Guide to SIEM
In this article, let us talk about the phases of SIEM’s journey and the levels of sophistication the technology had to reach to keep up with the expanding threat landscape.
Phase I - The Origin Years of SIEM
Compliance Reporting Guarantee
During the origin years of SIEM tools, the technology was not adopted by businesses for cybersecurity reasons at all. Organisations needed a way to meet several monitoring and reporting requirements and this is where top SIEM products came into the picture - Compliance!
The main job of SIEM tools was to collate and analyse event data collected by log files which would provide reports on non-compliant activities taking place and would act as the event data set required during compliance auditing processes. Policy violations and compliance reporting still remain an important aspect of SIEM in recent years.
Phase II - SIEM in the Present
Connecting Intelligence Platforms - SOAR, SIEM and UEBA
The ‘SIEM is dead’ phase primarily gained momentum because of its inability to detect threats from machine data. Organisations wanted to see an increase in the number of use cases of SIEM products in order to enhance their overall ROI. To keep up with the expectations, the product has evolved over the years to aid businesses in their cybersecurity defence efforts. But how?
The new-age SIEM tools list makes threat detection a priority. With a standout analytics module that can be set up easily on existing SIEM, the SOC can get access to insights and data to identify both known and unknown threats. It acts as a compressed analytical layer to gain knowledge from the existing SIEM without causing an overhaul of the information and events security landscape that is already present.
Today, top SIEM products can perform ML-powered behavioural analytics to recognise events that point to the presence of a hacker in the system and provide real-time intelligence to the SOCs with contextual insights to accelerate threat detection.
Present-day SIEM products are also rapidly moving beyond threat detection. By leveraging powerful AI engines, cutting-edge SIEM tools are now concentrating on threat investigation and automation functionalities. Automation can help you attain your security goals faster. Here’s how - Address Cybersecurity Risks With Automation
● Cybersecurity vendors have been working towards integrating their SIEM tools list with other sophisticated threat intelligence platforms like SOAR. By collating the capabilities of SOAR with SIEM products, organisations that intensify their real-time threat analysis efforts and promote the bi-directional flow of communication with third-party products.
If you already have an existing SIEM, here is why integrating it with SOAR can be a smart move - Pairing SIEM with SOAR Cybersecurity Platform
● Not just SOAR, the security landscape is also integrating SIEM with UEBA/ UBA capabilities to promote advanced visibility into the threat arena. It is a known fact that most data breaches and cybersecurity attacks can be triggered by people on the inside - employees who have access to sensitive information. Powering SIEM with UEBA, modern-day threat intelligence allows analysts to zoom into insider threats and eradicate them from its root.
Phase III - SIEM’s Role in the Future of Threat Detection
A major adoption wave of mobile, cloud and IoT has already started and these new innovations will soon be ruling the tech landscape for businesses.
The Role of SIEM:
● To keep up, SIEM products in the future need to continue adopting behaviour-based analytics and polishing their capabilities across users, networks, devices, applications and cloud environments. With the entry of IoT and increased adoption of cloud, threat actors will have the edge to create newer types of threats and device unique ways to penetrate enterprise systems. SIEM tools have to pace up their flexibility and agility capabilities using behaviour-based analytics to meet these threats half-way.
● More seamless integrations will be needed to build stronger, cohesive workflows. As more unique threats emerge, SIEM needs to buckle up and vendors are required to design common integration platforms that unify detection, centralise insights and build interoperable systems. To understand changes across systems, top SIEM products, in connection with other platforms need to infuse across the detection and investigation processes. This will help the SOC to better identify outlying events and automate low-risk response paths.
Parting Notes
The expanding fabric of the threat landscape makes it imperative for security tools to sift through high-volume, high-intensity data on a daily basis. With the help of intelligent, AI-powered SIEM, security teams can pinpoint threats proactively and gain contextual data to understand their cybersecurity landscape better.
As new innovations start to gain traction in the business landscape, the cybersecurity toolset for companies needs to amp up their capabilities too. The types of threats are changing and considering how far SIEM has evolved, we look forward to seeing the technology boost its abilities to defend organisations from newer, more sophisticated threats in the future.
Read more about Security Information and Event Management here - The Need for SIEM in the Service Industry
