Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is an indispensable part of any cyber strategy. At a time when ransomware, phishing and data breaches are commonplace, this solution helps you detect threats at an early stage, so that you can take the right measures in a timely manner to prevent damage. But what requirements should a good SIEM solution meet?

First a brief explanation of SIEM: it is a system that collects, combines and analyzes security-related data from many different sources. It gives a signal if there is an immediate danger that needs your attention.

Essential selection factors

Although SIEM is not new, it has been gaining market share in recent years because it benefits from the 'SaaSing trend'. Gartner emphasizes that many SIEM options currently only come from the cloud. The research agency mentions essential points to pay attention to when choosing a SIEM solution, such as:

• Real time analytics: not only to reveal the most acute threats, but also to prevent situations from arising that are not in line with legislation and regulations. Otherwise you run major legal, financial and reputational risks;
• Usability: with an intuitive interface, even people without a traditional IT background can use it;
• Integration: it is essential that the SIEM system can monitor your entire IT landscape;
• Scalability and compliance: sufficient storage capacity is needed to store everything that SIEM collects in terms of data about security events. That is important when you deal with supervisors.

Elastic: SIEM solution used worldwide

One SIEM solution used by leading organizations around the world is that of Elastic. Elastic SIEM offers analysts the opportunity to centrally monitor a flood of data from their entire environment. The solution collects, combines and analyzes log data, detects anomalous patterns and assesses whether they indicate a threat. This threat can come from within as well as from without.

Elastic-SIEM also allows users to quickly look up relevant data. Consider historical data, which provides more context. You can then better determine the nature of the threat you are dealing with. Thanks to Machine Learning, analysts also gain insight into which parts of their IT environment are at greatest risk. This enables quick actions to keep the ecosystem safe.

The Elastic platform stores all security event data centrally. This makes it easier to comply with laws and regulations. But its strongest asset is the speed at which Elastic collects and analyzes data. In combination with the highly automated nature of the solution, this means significant time savings for your employees.

The future is open source

Finally: Elastic is open source software. It may sound counterintuitive to release source code, but Elastic believes it is the best way to keep systems secure. After all, a community is more likely to find the answer to a cyber threat than a single team of developers at a vendor.

As an Elite partner, Puur Data has a lot of knowledge of Elastic. As an experienced party, we can often set up a SIEM in a week. This includes dashboards, alerting and capabilities to proactively detect threats.

Want to know more about SIEM? Then take a look at our Elastic SIEM page. Or take Contact on.