Security Information Event Management (SIEM) technology has come far over the past two decades. SIEM is a critical part of threat detection and response in a world where Gartner identifies the challenge of managing security exposures in a constantly evolving threat environment as a top 2024 cyber security trend. The promise of SIEM is the ability to accurately identify early signs of a cyber attacker’s activity, understand its impact, and provide actionable insights for mitigation. Many challenges, including recent M&A activity, have delayed this promise. So, how can we overcome these challenges to realize the benefits of SIEM effectively?
The Role of SIEM
The category, coined in 2005 by Gartner, is the gathering, analyzing, and presenting of network and security information, external threat data, and vulnerability management. While SIEMs are often used to meet compliance mandates for centralized log monitoring, their capabilities extend to enhance threat coverage and security operations.
In today’s disperse networking environment, including remote users, cloud infrastructure, and Software-as-a-Service applications, SIEMs are now and must be more than organizing security events from perimeter defense tools. A comprehensive SIEM can be looked at as a toolbox through which other security technologies become more effective. With complete insight, presented clearly and straightforwardly, security analysts make informed decisions on their organization’s security.
A Closer Look: The Threat Landscape and a Shift in SIEM
IT environments are ever-changing. As threat actors become more sophisticated, so do the challenges of finding hidden exploitable vulnerabilities, exposing organizations to successful intrusion, leading anywhere from ransomware to data exfiltration and botnet infestation. When left unchecked, these vulnerabilities can have significant repercussions. Driven by financial and political gain, cybercriminals are constantly innovating and sharing their tools. According to the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, 14% of breaches involved the exploitation of vulnerabilities as an initial access step, almost triple the amount from the 2023 Report. Another recent report cited that three in four companies were at risk of a material cyberattack, and in 2024, cybercrime will cost the US more than $452 billion.
Impacts of SIEM Market Consolidation
In an industry that requires constant innovation to keep a level-playing field with attackers, the recent market consolidation challenges security analysts. Two SIEM providers are merging, and two more SIEM companies were acquired this year alone. Security analysts were already overworked and facing ‘alert fatigue,’ and to make matters worse, they are now navigating through new vendor contacts, contracts, and possible product sunsets and migrations. While these customer-facing disruptions may last for the next two years, the SIEM market is still dynamic, with organizations, such as the mid-enterprise, often seeing the benefits of SIEM for the first time.
Delivering on The Promise of SIEM
If the promise of SIEM is the ability to accurately identify early signs of an attacker’s activity, understand its impact, and provide actionable insights for mitigation, how do we overcome the market interference and evolving threat landscape to realize these benefits? Through constant innovation.
Innovation does not always equate to more product releases or more feature sets; it means delivering new ways to solve problems, such as:
- Improving the analyst experience and usability through intuitive workflows to create positive experiences for overworked security analysts
- Collaborating with partners with like-minded goals and integrating with other systems and technologies to establish a comprehensive defense strategy
- Applying breakout technologies, such as GenAI and machine learning, where applicable, to augment the security analyst (not replace)
- Automating steps to remove the obstacles that impede meeting security and compliance objectives
While the SIEM market has served us for almost two decades, SIEM technology continues to mature and evolve. In a market heavy with distraction, it’s key to focus on continuing to find ways to innovate towards delivering SIEM’s intended promises.
