Why do you need a SIEM?

Before we can get into why you need one, you really need to know what one is, so what is a SIEM?

A SIEM is a security information event manager, which very simply means its software that manages events regarding information security, simple enough.

When configured and installed correctly they can collect logs and event information from a whole range of devices across a network and bring them into a central system, so an IT team can review this information in a single place rather than having to log into multiple separate systems or run around the office checking individual physical systems. This, therefore, brings us to the very first benefit for why you need a SIEM. Having a SIEM can save your companies network operations lots of time, because of its ability to consolidate information into a single system, with a single interface.

The second benefit can be answered, by asking “Why is this important?”. The speed of which a company is capable of identifying malicious activity could be the difference between losing all data and being able to restore a backup, or having one system held to ransom or an entire network. Therefore speed is crucial and the second benefit. There are many new attacks and vulnerabilities are exploited every day, where detecting zero-days or any new attack can be very difficult in any environment. Using SIEM you can detect those attacks at very early stages and help to protect your environment before the attack has been exploited or performed. SIEM cannot only monitor your infrastructure but also provide you with an active response when an attacker tries to learn about your network infrastructure using reconnaissance or using any network scanning tools such as Nmap. SIEM can help to create an active cybersecurity posture around your infrastructure where it includes active monitoring and alerting for any security incident.

SIEMs do come at a cost though, so at what point do they really become beneficial? Should a small 5 -10 person company implement one and then keep it running, or is it designed for a larger company? There are many factors that need to be considered for this, so let's run through a small list.

• How likely is your company to be targeted by an attack?
• How sensitive is the information on your systems? Is it patent/intellectual property worth information, or highly sensitive personally identifiable information?
• How many sources of information would a SIEM pull data from, regarding your business? (do you have multiple firewalls, hundreds of machines, many variations of operating systems)?

If you're answering these questions with yes, then it might be a good idea to get in touch and we can discuss these further. With the help of The TechForce, we can aim to improve your cybersecurity and get you into the best position possible.