What is SIEM (Security In­form­a­tion & Event Man­age­ment)?

Busi­nesses face both known and unknown cyber threats due to in­creas­ing di­git­isa­tion, hybrid work models, and a variety of end devices. Therefore, security concepts such as SIEM (Security In­form­a­tion & Event Man­age­ment) are more crucial than ever. By logging, analysing, and pro­cessing system and network data, security threats can be quickly iden­ti­fied, traced, and mitigated.

What is SIEM?

The ab­bre­vi­ation SIEM stands for Security In­form­a­tion & Event Man­age­ment, which gives companies more trans­par­ency and control over their own data. A stand­ard­ised security and pro­tec­tion concept allows sus­pi­cious security incidents, attack trends and threat patterns to be iden­ti­fied at an early stage. This is made possible by tools that log and analyse a variety of event and process data across every layer of the company, from end devices through firewalls and IPS (Intrusion Pre­ven­tion Systems) to the network, cloud, and server levels.

SIEM in­teg­rates both SIM (Security In­form­a­tion Man­age­ment) and SEM (Security Event Man­age­ment) to assess security in­form­a­tion and incidents con­tex­tu­ally and cor­rel­at­ively in real time, create alerts, and trigger security measures. This approach allows for the early detection and mit­ig­a­tion of potential vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies and security breaches, as well as quickly pre­vent­ing any attack attempts. The concept of SIEM was es­tab­lished in 2005 by Gartner. Essential elements of con­tem­por­ary SIEM solutions include UBA (User Behavior Analytics), UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics), and SOAR (Security Or­ches­tra­tion, Auto­ma­tion, and Response).

Why is Security In­form­a­tion & Event Man­age­ment important?

Today, a company’s IT in­fra­struc­ture no longer consists of just a server and a few end devices. Even medium-sized companies use more or less complex company networks that are made up of a large number of internet-enabled end devices, their own software landscape and several servers and cloud services. Added to this are new working models such as working from home or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

The more complex the IT in­fra­struc­ture, the more vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies can occur if cyber security is in­ad­equate. More and more companies are therefore relying on holistic pro­tec­tion against ransom­ware, spyware and scareware as well as against new forms of cy­ber­at­tacks and zero-day exploits.

The im­port­ance of security solutions such as SIEM is growing for companies, and not just because of acute threats. Strict data pro­tec­tion re­quire­ments under the GDPR or cer­ti­fic­a­tions such as BASE II, ISO or SOX now even require a data and system pro­tec­tion concept. This can often only be achieved through SIEM or similar strategies such as EDR and XDR.

By bringing together, eval­u­at­ing and linking security-relevant log and report data in a central platform, SIEM allows data from all ap­plic­a­tions and network levels to be analysed in a security-oriented manner. The earlier you detect threats or security leaks in this way, the faster you can reduce risks to your business processes and protect company data**. SIEM therefore offers a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in ef­fi­ciency when it comes to com­pli­ance and real-time pro­tec­tion against threats such as ransom­ware, malware or data theft.

How does SIEM work?

The term ‘SIEM’ was in­tro­duced in 2005 by Amrit Williams and Mark Nicolett of Gartner. According to the National Institute of Standards and Tech­no­logy’s official defin­i­tion, SIEM is an ap­plic­a­tion that gathers security data from the various elements of an in­form­a­tion system and displays it on a central dashboard in an organised and action-oriented manner. This already en­cap­su­lates the func­tion­al­ity, because unlike a firewall, which defends against acute cyber threats, SIEM relies on sus­tain­able, proactive data col­lec­tion and analysis that can also reveal hidden attacks or threat trends.

A SIEM system can be im­ple­men­ted on premises, as a cloud solution or as a hybrid variant with local and cloud-enabled com­pon­ents. The process from data col­lec­tion to security alerts consists of the following four stages:

Stage 1: Collect data from multiple sources in the system

The SIEM solution records and collects data from various levels, layers and com­pon­ents of your IT in­fra­struc­ture. This includes servers, routers, firewalls, virus programs, switches, IPs and IDS as well as end devices in­teg­rated with endpoint security or XDR (Extended Detection and Response). Connected logging, reporting and security systems are used for this purpose.

Stage 2: Aggregate collected data

Collected data is sum­mar­ised in a clear and trans­par­ent manner on the central user interface. By col­lect­ing and or­gan­ising through a dashboard, it elim­in­ates the need for time-intensive analysis of different logs and reports from in­di­vidu­al ap­plic­a­tions.

Stage 3: Analyse and correlate ag­greg­ated data

The ap­plic­a­tion analyses the data that has been collected and sum­mar­ised for known virus and malware sig­na­tures, sus­pi­cious incidents such as logins from VPN networks or incorrect login details. It also high­lights abnormal usage, ques­tion­able at­tach­ments, or other con­spicu­ous activ­it­ies that have something to do with security. By linking, or­gan­ising, cor­rel­at­ing, and clas­si­fy­ing data, the ap­plic­a­tion fa­cil­it­ates the rapid tracking and isolation of in­filt­ra­tion paths, enabling treats to be mitigated or even neut­ral­ised. Fur­ther­more, by assigning security levels, it swiftly addresses both overt and concealed attacks, while ruling out benign anomalies.

Stage 4: Detect threats, vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies or security breaches

If a threat is detected, automated alerts enable faster response times and immediate threat neut­ral­isa­tion. Rather than ex­tens­ively searching for the source of danger or anomalies, you can quickly pinpoint them through the alert and, if necessary, isolate them in quar­ant­ine. Moreover, it is possible to re­con­struct previous threats so security pro­ced­ures can be refined.

In con­junc­tion with an XDR solution with in­teg­rated AI, defense mech­an­isms such as quar­ant­ine or the blocking of end devices or IPs can be im­ple­men­ted par­tic­u­larly quickly using pre­defined, automated workflows. Real-time threat feeds, which con­stantly feed in updated sig­na­tures and security data, also allow you to detect new types of attacks and threats in their early stages.

An overview of the most important SIEM elements

Various co­ordin­ated com­pon­ents are used to ensure complete data col­lec­tion and analysis as part of a SIEM solution. These include:

The benefits of Security In­form­a­tion & Event Man­age­ment (SIEM)

Due to the in­creas­ing cyber risks for companies, simple firewalls or virus programs are usually no longer suf­fi­cient to protect networks and systems. Par­tic­u­larly when it comes to hybrid struc­tures with mul­ticlouds and hybrid clouds, soph­ist­ic­ated solutions such as EDR, XDR and SIEM or, ideally, a com­bin­a­tion of two or more services are required. This is the only way to securely use end devices and cloud services and detect threats at an early stage.

The benefits that SIEM can offer you include:

Real-time threat detection

Thanks to the holistic approach in the form of system-wide data col­lec­tion and eval­u­ation, threats can be quickly iden­ti­fied and prevented. Due to the reduced mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), sensitive data and business-critical processes can be reliably protected.

Adherence to com­pli­ance and data pro­tec­tion re­quire­ments

SIEM systems ensure a com­pli­ance-aligned IT in­fra­struc­ture through detailed logging and threat analysis. This in­fra­struc­ture meets all essential security and reporting standards required for storing data securely and pro­cessing it in an audit-compliant manner.

Time and cost-saving security concept

By dis­play­ing, visu­al­ising, analysing and in­ter­pret­ing all security-relevant data centrally and clearly in a user interface, SIEM increases the ef­fi­ciency of your IT security. This reduces the time and costs otherwise as­so­ci­ated with con­ven­tion­al manual security measures. Spe­cific­ally, the use of automated and, in some systems, AI-enhanced data analysis and cor­rel­a­tion speeds up the pre­ven­tion of threats. High costs as­so­ci­ated with repairing infected systems or removing malware can also be avoided with pre­vent­ive SIEM solutions.

The option of using SIEM as SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) or via Managed Security Services also enables smaller companies with limited resources or without their own IT security to be able to reliably protect their company network.

Auto­ma­tion with ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and machine learning

SIEM systems enable an even higher level of auto­ma­tion and in­tel­li­gent threat pre­ven­tion through ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and machine learning. For example, you can also use SIEM solutions in SOAR systems (Security Or­ches­tra­tion, Auto­ma­tion and Response) or in con­junc­tion with an existing endpoint security or XDR solution.