Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

How it typically works?

1. Log collection: data is gathered from diverse sources such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoints, and applications.
2. Normalization: logs are standardized to a common format.
3. Correlation: rules and analytics connect events across systems to detect patterns.
4. Alerting: incidents are raised for analyst review.
5. Dashboards: visualizations support real-time monitoring and reporting.

Common techniques

• Correlation rules: detect brute force attacks, lateral movement, or insider threats.
• Use case libraries: prebuilt detections for common attack techniques.
• Machine learning: identify anomalies and reduce false positives.
• Integration with threat intelligence: enrich alerts with context about attacker tools.
• Cloud-native SIEM: scalable log management with reduced infrastructure overhead.
• Popular platforms: Splunk, Elastic Security, IBM QRadar, Microsoft Sentinel.

Impact

SIEM plays a central role in modern SOC operations. It enables compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS by providing audit logs. It helps detect attacks that span multiple systems and supports incident response through centralized data.

However, SIEM deployment can be complex and costly, and poorly tuned systems generate alert fatigue. For SecOps, the effectiveness of a SIEM depends on strong use case development and skilled analysts.

Further reading

• NIST: SIEM definition. Read more
• SANS: SIEM best practices. Read more
• Splunk: What is SIEM? Read more
• Elastic Security: SIEM overview. Read more
• Microsoft Sentinel: SIEM in the cloud. Read more