January 02, 2023
What is SIEM and how does it work?
Security information and event management (SIEM) enhances visibility throughout an entire business network, including all devices, applications, users and sensors. It incorporates both on-site and cloud-based environments. Importantly, SIEM performs real-time analysis of all security data and events via a centralised interface.
It enables businesses to swiftly investigate cyber security incidents like data breaches, so that enterprises can better manage their IT networks, bolster their cyber defences, and comply with laws and regulations. SIEM allows companies to continuously monitor all data, log specific events and set up security alerts.
What is new about SIEM?
This relatively new network technology offers a comprehensive solution for collecting and processing data from every network activity. It uses automated tools to collect information for real-time monitoring, processing, analysis, reporting and long-term storage. This enhanced integrated security solution draws data from the entire IT system.
SIEM provides valuable insights using customisable algorithms. This can be used to boost productivity, refine processes, mitigate a cyberattack, or facilitate a forensic investigation after an attack. Security teams can detect, identify and respond to threats more quickly thanks to SIEM's automated triggers and alerts.
How does SIEM technology work?
The enhanced network visibility and threat detection capabilities offered by SIEM can assist security teams in streamlining their workloads. SIEM collates all security information and events by drawing data from across the IT system. It supports on-premises networks, cloud-based applications and servers, as well as mobile technologies, using an open and scalable architecture.
Security teams can effectively and accurately analyse and report on incidents thanks to customisable visualisation tools. Automated tools speed up response times and improve operational efficiency. SIEM detects any deviation from normal patterns of behaviour from users, apps or devices. Large, complex data sets can be collected and managed using this technology.
How does SIEM work in practice?
SIEM works by collecting event and log data throughout the company's digital infrastructure. It compiles that data onto a centralised management platform, ready for analysis and category separation. For example, successful and failed logins, suspicious activity, or other malware or cyber security breaches are tracked and displayed to IT teams.
Businesses are essentially able to monitor, report and mitigate incidents as they happen across the entire network, which allows them to fully understand what is happening within their IT systems.
Businesses can set alerts based on their priority level, using rules that can be customised. For instance, if a user account indicates 20 failed login attempts in 30 minutes, SIEM can flag this as suspicious activity, but with low priority. It is likely that these attempts were made by the user who had misplaced their login information.
Conversely, a user account that generates 200 failed login attempts within one minute will be marked as high priority because it is more likely that a DDoS attack is being conducted at that time.
Benefits of SIEM for business
Business leaders gain a new level of insight into security activities throughout their IT ecosystem with a streamlined view of all existing and new data. SIEM provides full visibility into the entire attack surface, including distributed environments hosted in on-site, hybrid or cloud environments.
A single dashboard unifies all applications and network activity. Tech teams have tremendous insight into the entire IT ecosystem because of the ability to view activity in real time. Organisations get immediate, detailed reporting for visibility, compliance, strategy and training with on-demand reporting and analytics.
IT leaders benefit from a comprehensive understanding of what is happening on the network through intelligible and actionable analytics. With SIEM, businesses can strengthen their operational capabilities and organisational resilience. For more information or to get a quote for our cyber security solutions, email us at marketing@seacom.com or leave us a message.
SEACOM owns Africa’s largest network of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, including fibre optic networks and subsea cables. We offer a wide range of industry-leading scalable ICT solutions for large companies that operate throughout the region.
SEACOM is privately owned - making it adaptable to the needs of the client. We are the preferred ICT and internet connectivity supplier for African enterprises. We can guarantee fast, reliable and secure internet and networking services at affordable prices.
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