Security information and event management (SIEM) is a software solution that aggregates log and event data, threat intelligence, and security alerts to provide actionable insight on potential security events.
SIEM stands for security information and event management. SIEM works by correlating log and event data from systems across an IT environment. SIEM security tools generate prioritized alerts and enable automated responses to potential security incidents based on customized policies and data analytics.
The security incident and event management process:
The most useful SIEM tool manages risk, streamlines compliance, and optimizes operations. Look for a SIEM product that offers:
The main difference between SIEM and SOC is that a security operations center (SOC) is a team of security professionals who monitor, analyze, and respond to incidents, while SIEM is a security tool. SOCs use a SIEM solution to glean actionable insights from potentially large volumes of event data.
SIEM platforms help visualize event data from applications, databases, servers, firewalls, and other systems to help monitor, detect, and respond to threats. Threat intelligence feeds are built into some SIEM systems, while other solutions support third-party feeds.
SIEM technology collects, normalizes, and analyzes log data to gain visibility into threats and incidents. Storing long-term data enables more effective analysis, reporting, and forensic investigations.
SIEM can be integrated with threat-hunting and detection tools to provide improved visibility into potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Predefined rules, aggregate threat intelligence, SIEM monitoring, and machine learning all enable SIEM solutions to filter and prioritize events, generating high-fidelity alerts for only the issues that matter most to an organization.
Advanced analysis provided by SIEM solutions helps security professionals better interpret data, collaborate on cases, and respond to events. Full-featured SIEM solutions can be integrated with security orchestration and automation response (SOAR) technology to automate responses to threats.
SIEM software can be integrated with other security solutions—such as SOAR tools—to automate workflows and playbooks in response to incidents.
SIEM products can aid regulatory security compliance by automating processes like monitoring data, maintaining data logs for auditing, and producing compliance reports.
SIEM solutions support integration with a variety of other security systems and tools. Advanced SIEM products support: