SIEM and why it’s important to the security of your business

Posted 19th December 2019

If you regularly read our blogs, you may have noticed that we regularly remind our readers of the importance of ensuring that your cybersecurity systems are up to date. In a constantly evolving world of cybercrime, newer and increasingly complex threats emerge every day, which is why as a business it’s important to consider implementing SIEM into your current IT infrastructure.

SIEM stands for Security Information and Event Management system.

SIEM software works by collecting log and event data that is generated by host systems, security devices and applications throughout an organization's infrastructure and collating it on a centralized platform. From antivirus events to firewall logs, SIEM software identifies this data and sorts it into categories, such as malware activity, failed and successful logins and other potentially malicious activity.

When the software identifies activity that could signify a threat to the organization, alerts are generated to indicate a potential security issue. These alerts can be set as either low or high priority using a set of pre-defined rules. For example, if a user account generates 20 failed login attempts in 20 minutes, this could be flagged as suspicious activity, but set at a lower priority as it is most likely to be a user that has forgotten their login details. However, if an account experiences 120 failed login attempts in 5 minutes this is more likely to be a brute-force attack in progress and flagged as a high severity incident.

In a nutshell, SIEM allows IT teams to see the bigger picture by collecting security event data from multiple sources in one place. A single alert from an antivirus filter may not be a cause of panic on its own, but if traffic anomaly alerts are received from the firewall at the same time, this could signify that a severe breach is in progress. SIEM collects all of these alerts in a centralized console, allowing fast and thorough analysis.

Cyber threats do not only occur Monday to Friday between 9 and 5. This solution is managed by a partner 24/7/365, that monitor cyber threats from their high-tech security centre, where a team of highly skilled experts detect threats and alert you in real time. Their cutting edge, cloud based SIEM provides full coverage at a simple and affordable price.

If you would like to chat with us about how a SIEM system can transform your cybersecurity, get in touch today.

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Long gone are the days of having an Anti-virus software on your device and thinking thats you covered, its now a fast moving and evolving landscape that needs constant awareness on whats happening, a multi-layered approach to protecting the business networks and data, and expert advice.