What is SIEM? Automating Intrusion Detection Systems and Security Vulnerability Handling

SIEM acts as the cybersecurity 'brain,' enabling real-time data collection and analysis to detect and respond to security incidents.

Current Reality: The Challenge of "Digital Noise" 

Modern organizations operate in a complex digital environment where data is continuously generated from thousands of endpoints, servers, firewalls, and cloud applications. As a result, security teams face thousands of alerts every day.

Manually processing this massive volume of data leads to "Alert Fatigue". When personnel are overwhelmed by false alarms or background noise, the risk of missing sophisticated yet serious attack signs increases significantly. This is when businesses need a solution not only to "see" but also to "understand" the big picture. 

What is SIEM? The Combination of Security Information and Event Management 

 Security Information and Event Management, or SIEM, is a security solution that helps organizations identify and resolve potential threats and security vulnerabilities before they have a chance to disrupt business operations.  

SIEM systems support enterprise security teams in detecting anomalies in user behavior while applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate many manual processes related to threat detection and incident response. 

Early SIEM platforms were originally log management tools. They combine Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM) functions. These platforms enable the monitoring and analysis of security-related events in real-time.  

Additionally, they facilitate the tracking and logging of security data for regulatory compliance or auditing purposes. Gartner coined the term "SIEM" to refer to the combination of SIM and SEM technologies in 2005. 

Over the years, SIEM software has evolved to integrate User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), as well as other advanced security analytics, alongside AI and machine learning capabilities to identify abnormal behaviors and signs of advanced threats. Today, SIEM has become a core component in modern Security Operations Centers (SOC), serving security monitoring and compliance management tasks. 

Operational Mechanism: How Does SIEM Act as the "Brain" of the Intrusion Detection System? 

At the most basic level, all SIEM solutions perform a certain degree of data aggregation, consolidation, and organization to identify threats and comply with data security requirements. While the capabilities of each solution may vary, most provide the following core functional suite: 

Log Management

SIEM collects event data from widespread sources across the organization's entire IT infrastructure, including both on-premises and cloud environments.  

Event log data from users, endpoints, applications, data sources, cloud workloads, and networks, as well as data from security hardware and software (such as firewalls or anti-virus software), are all collected, correlated, and analyzed in real-time.  

Some SIEM solutions also integrate with third-party threat intelligence providers to cross-reference internal security data with previously identified threat profiles and signatures. Integrating with real-time threat data feeds allows security teams to prevent or detect new types of attack signatures.  

Event Correlation and Analytics

Event correlation is an essential part of any SIEM solution. By using advanced analytics tools to identify and understand complex data patterns, event correlation provides deep insights that help quickly locate and mitigate potential threats to business security.  

SIEM solutions significantly improve the Mean Time To Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time To Respond (MTTR) for IT security teams by reducing manual processes involved in the in-depth analysis of security events. 

Incident Monitoring and Security Alerts

SIEM consolidates its analytical results into a single central dashboard where security teams monitor activity, categorize alerts, identify threats, and initiate response or remediation actions.  

Most SIEM dashboards include real-time data visualization tools, helping security analysts quickly detect trends or spikes in suspicious activity. Using predefined and customizable correlation rules, administrators can be alerted immediately and take appropriate actions to mitigate risks before they become more serious security issues. . 

Compliance Management and Reporting

SIEM solutions are a popular choice for organizations subject to various forms of regulatory compliance. Thanks to the ability to automate data collection and analysis, SIEM is a valuable tool for gathering and verifying compliance data across the entire business infrastructure.  

SIEM solutions can generate real-time compliance reports for PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and other compliance standards. This helps reduce the burden of security management and detects potential violations early so they can be addressed promptly. Many SIEM solutions come with built-in add-ons designed to generate automated reports to meet compliance requirements. 

7 Outstanding Benefits Helping SIEM Optimize Operations and Mitigate Risks 

Regardless of size, taking proactive steps to monitor and mitigate IT security risks is essential for every organization. SIEM solutions benefit businesses in various ways and have become a vital component in optimizing security workflows. 

Real-time Threat Identification

SIEM solutions enable centralized auditing and compliance reporting across the entire business infrastructure. Advanced automation helps streamline the collection and analysis of system logs and security events to minimize the use of internal resources while meeting strict compliance reporting standards.

AI-driven Automation

Modern next-generation SIEM solutions today integrate with powerful Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) systems, helping IT teams save time and resources during enterprise security management.

Using deep machine learning capabilities to automatically learn from network behavior, these solutions can handle complex threat identification and incident response protocols faster than physical teams. 

Improving Organizational Efficiency

By improving comprehensive visibility into the IT environment, SIEM can be an essential driver for enhancing cross-departmental operational efficiency.

A central dashboard provides a unified view of system data, alerts, and notifications, allowing teams to communicate and collaborate effectively when responding to threats and security incidents. 

Detecting Advanced and Unknown Threats

Given the rapid change in the cybersecurity landscape, organizations must rely on solutions that can detect and respond to both known and unknown security threats.

Using integrated threat intelligence feeds and AI technology, SIEM solutions can help security teams respond more effectively to many types of cyberattacks, including:

• Insider Threats: Security vulnerabilities or attacks originating from individuals with valid access to the company's network and digital assets.
• Phishing: Messages that appear to be sent by a trusted sender, often used to steal user data, login credentials, financial information, or other sensitive business information.
• Ransomware: Malicious software that locks a victim's data or device and threatens to keep the key, or worse, unless the victim pays a ransom to the attacker.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): Attacks that overwhelm networks and systems with unmanageable levels of traffic from a distributed network of compromised devices (botnets), degrading the performance of websites and servers until they are unusable.
• Data Exfiltration: The act of stealing data from a computer or other device, carried out manually or automatically using malicious software.  

Digital Forensic Investigations 

SIEM solutions are ideal tools for performing computer forensic investigations once a security incident occurs. SIEM allows organizations to effectively collect and analyze data logs from all digital assets in a single place.

This gives them the ability to reconstruct past incidents or analyze new ones to investigate suspicious activity and implement more effective security processes. 

Compliance Assessment and Reporting 

Compliance auditing and reporting is a task that is both necessary and challenging for many organizations. SIEM solutions significantly reduce the resource costs required to manage this process by providing real-time auditing and on-demand regulatory compliance reporting whenever needed. 

User and Application Monitoring 

With the increasing popularity of remote workforces, SaaS applications, and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, organizations need the visibility required to mitigate cyber risks from outside the traditional network perimeter.

SIEM solutions track all network activity across every user, device, and application, significantly improving transparency across the entire infrastructure and detecting threats regardless of where digital assets and services are being accessed. 

Effective SIEM Deployment Process for Businesses  

1. Define Objectives and Needs  

Before deploying SIEM, businesses should clearly define the following factors: 

• Security and Business Goals: Monitor the entire system, detect threats early, and/or strictly meet regulatory compliance requirements.
• Deployment Scope: Clearly define the areas that need monitoring (e.g., the entire system, critical servers, endpoints, or only cloud applications).
• Resource Needs Assessment: SIEM requires large storage capacity and powerful processing capabilities; therefore, a proper investment plan for infrastructure and computing resources is necessary.  

2. Select the Optimal SIEM Platform

Currently, there are many popular SIEM solutions on the market; businesses should consider them based on scale and integration needs: 

• Splunk: Highly regarded for its flexible scalability and support for Big Data Analytics.
• IBM Qradar: Suitable for large enterprises, integrating AI to optimize threat detection.
• ArcSight: A powerful solution with effective security data correlation and analysis capabilities.
• Microsoft Sentinel: A cloud-native SIEM platform that is easy to deploy and deeply integrates with the Microsoft ecosystem. 

3. System Integration and Configuration  

After selecting the appropriate platform, businesses need to focus on: 

• Connecting Data Sources: Integrate SIEM with diverse log sources from servers, firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoint security systems, cloud logs, and enterprise applications.
• Establishing Detection Rules: Configure advanced correlation rules to detect abnormal behavior or potential attacks.
• Optimizing Detection Rules: Categorize alert priority levels, filter noise, and minimize false positives as much as possible. 

4. Enhancing the Capability of the Operations Team (SOC)

Businesses need to organize in-depth training for IT staff and the Security Operations Center (SOC) team to operate SIEM effectively: 

• Log Analysis: Instruct on how to perform log analysis and the process of identifying security incidents.
• Handling and Investigation: Practice the process of handling alerts, investigating threats, and responding to incidents.
• Tool Integration: Train on how to integrate SIEM with other security tools like SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response).
  

5. Performance Monitoring and Continuous Fine-tuning

A SIEM system is not a "set and forget" solution but needs to be maintained, optimized, and updated regularly: 

• Testing and Updating Rules: Regularly evaluate and adjust detection rules to match new threats and the changing risk landscape.
• Optimizing System Performance: Ensure SIEM operates stably and does not degrade the performance of the IT infrastructure.
• Periodic Report Analysis: Evaluate reports on incidents and threat trends to continuously improve the overall security strategy. 

NetGuardX: Comprehensive SIEM and SOC as a Service Solution 

Implementing, operating, and maintaining an effective internal SIEM/SOC system requires resources, deep security expertise, and 24/7 monitoring capabilities. For multinational corporations and large enterprises in Vietnam, this is often a major challenge in terms of cost and personnel. 

NetGuardX provides a comprehensive SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) solution, combining the power of an advanced SIEM platform with our team of security experts who are constantly on standby. We allow businesses to: 

• Minimize Operational Burden: Hand over 24/7 security system management responsibility, handle "Alert Fatigue," and fine-tune complex correlation rules.
• Optimize Investment Costs: No need for large investments in infrastructure and an internal SOC team, converting Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) into Operational Expenditure (OPEX).
• Enhance Response Capability: Ensure Mean Time To Detect and Mean Time To Respond (MTTD/MTTR) are optimized according to international standards.
• Compliance and Strategy: Provide cybersecurity strategy consulting (ATT Strategy Consulting) and detailed compliance reports, helping businesses achieve safe business goals. 

With the goal of becoming a One-Stop-Shop partner providing comprehensive Managed Security Services (MSSP), NetGuardX commits not only to detection; but also to protecting and responding to every threat before they cause loss.  

Contact NetGuardX today for a comprehensive evaluation service of your IT system infrastructure performance and your business's current security status.  

Contact NetNam: 

• Hotline: 1900 1586
• Email: netguardx@netnam.vn
• Website: www.netnam.com
• Comprehensive Cybersecurity Monitoring Service: www.netguardx.netnam.com