Page 254 - Cyber Defense eMagazine August 2024

Brief Description of SIEM Systems

Even small organizations use large number of technologies and various software, for example, firewalls,
antiviruses, email, data base management systems etc. SIEM systems are developed for monitoring of
complex IT-infrastructure, gathering and performing analysis of security events, revealing potential
threats and targeted attacks in real life mode. The system notifies information security specialists about
violations, failures and other problems. Data from SIEM system is also used for performing of corporate
investigations. The system keeps archive with details on infrastructure operation for previous periods to
ensure the availability of data if necessary.

Why SMEs Need SIEM Systems

1. Ensure protection of IT-infrastructure

Each infrastructure object is a potential entrance point in the corporate infrastructure for malicious actors.
Any infrastructure object may cause technical issues for the infrastructure or be exploited by malicious
insiders for hacking, disabling IT system etc. SIEM systems gather and analyze data from various
sources: employees’ workstations, network scanners, servers, database management systems,
programs etc. In fact, an organization remains under SIEM system’s 24/7 supervision.

2. Automate routine processes

SMEs often don’t have large IT and IS departments, thus, the task of automation of control over events
in the IT infrastructure is an extremely actual one. Millions of security events are generated in the IT
infrastructure of even small company on an everyday basis. It’s too labor-intensive to analyze all of them
manually. And it’s even more difficult to detect dangerous activities and incidents in the overall event
flows. SIEM systems optimize IS specialists work processes: software gathers events from various
sources and thanks to the embedded analytical tools establish a correlation between them and notifies
employees in charge about the threat.

3. Ensure control of network equipment

SIEM systems enable to ensure control of equipment condition and don't leave processes to chance. For
example, a server equipment's change of temperature may indicate a serious failure, in some cases it
may even alert that fire is about to begin. The system detects overheat, what enables to obtain the issue
just in time and eliminate it. SIEM systems ensure protection against such situations as failure of
equipment, due to which the organization may temporarily become inoperable.

4. Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements

Due to the increasing amount of cyber risks and ongoing sophistication of threats, SIEM systems are
becoming more and more crucial components of ensuring corporate protection. SIEM class systems are
crucial components of ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, as they are capable of
obtaining and analyzing data, related to security events within the whole corporate infrastructure and
revelation of potential vulnerabilities and incidents. SIEM system should also provide the required
functionality for performing full-scale work flow for performing incident investigations.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – August 2024 Edition 254
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