Changing the SIEM Game

Making the investment for storage, processing and infrastructure support

For many companies, deploying security information and event monitoring (SIEM) technology to strengthen the ability to identify potential security threats has been an unreachable goal.

That might be about to change, with two of the largest public cloud service providers announcing new cloudbased offerings that include SIEM capabilities. Implementing SIEM has been a challenge because many organizations do not have the storage, processing and related infrastructure to support these applications. Many either cannot afford to make the investment or are unwilling to do so.

Now, with both Microsoft and Google announcing new services that support SIEM, the technology has suddenly become more approachable and affordable for organizations from the largest enterprises to small companies looking to bolster their cyber security postures.

Google announced a multitude of security-related capabilities for its Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including Cloud Security Command Center (Cloud SCC), a security management and data risk platform for GCP. The platform includes an Event Threat Detection service that leverages Google-proprietary intelligence models to quickly detect threats such as malware, cryptomining and outgoing distributed denial-of-services (DDoS) attacks.

Around the same time, Microsoft introduced Azure Sentinel, a cloud-native SIEM platform that provides intelligent security analytics at cloud scale. Azure Sentinel is designed to make it easy to collect security data across an entire hybrid organization from devices, users, applications and servers on any cloud using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify real threats quickly.

Multiple Benefits

With these cloud-native services, businesses can acquire the functionality and capabilities of SIEM without making the financial outlay for servers, storage and related maintenance and support. The cost shifts from capital expenditures to operating expenditures, and the economics of the cloud make pricing far more palatable even for organizations with limited security budgets.

Additionally, organizations don’t need to acquire as much, or any, of the internal expertise they would need if they were running these systems on premises. With the ongoing shortage of cyber security skills, that’s an important factor and another cost consideration. These services can also be deployed much faster than on-premises systems because the service providers are doing all the heavy lifting as far as infrastructure is concerned.

Another key advantage to cloud-based SIEM is scalability. Because of the cloud infrastructure supporting the services, organizations can easily scale processing and storage up or down as needed. Many companies have struggled with the issue of how many months’ worth of security logs to keep and how to scale storage to accommodate that. That’s not an issue with the cloud.

As a result, companies are not limited by storage capacity or number of events. They no longer need to port event logs out of the cloud environment into on-premise platforms if they have such products. There are long-term archiving solutions available. That enables companies to access past events without having to keep these records on more costly active storage.

Connectors Needed

One drawback, at least in the short term, is that these services have relatively few connectors to other technology platforms that can feed information about events and incidents. In comparison, on-premises SIEM platforms have a long list of pre-defined application programming interface (API) connectors that makes it easier to pull data such as log information from other systems.

That said, both Microsoft and Google are working hard to get as many pre-defined API connectors as possible and with the cloud, such efforts tend to move rapidly. In the meantime, organizations can build their own connectors with software development kits (SDKs) available for each of these new services. These could be used to overcome the limitation.

Companies can leverage the cloud-native SIEM services as they move into hybrid cloud environments. With the flexibility offered by these solutions, they can use one of the cloud-based services as their master SIEM platform and feed data into it from on-premises SIEM and other systems.

On the other hand, if they’re more comfortable making an onpremises offering the primary SIEM, they can then leverage the cloud-enabled services to support the on-premises platform, as long as these different environments are connected.

Moving Forward

How organizations handle SIEM comes down to what they are looking to achieve, how long they want to keep records, their level of risk tolerance, and other factors.

Some companies remain resistant to putting sensitive data in the cloud—even though the cloud in many cases has been shown to be more secure than data center environments—and therefore will prefer to maintain an on-premises SIEM as their main platform for security information and event monitoring. Others may be more concerned about keeping a long history of data or require a lot of processing power, so a cloud-native service makes more sense as the primary SIEM.

Either way, these offerings provide organizations with new options for their SIEM needs. These services represent an important step in the right direction.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • New Report Reveals Top Trends Transforming Access Controller Technology

    Mercury Security, a provider in access control hardware and open platform solutions, has published its Trends in Access Controllers Report, based on a survey of over 450 security professionals across North America and Europe. The findings highlight the controller’s vital role in a physical access control system (PACS), where the device not only enforces access policies but also connects with readers to verify user credentials—ranging from ID badges to biometrics and mobile identities. With 72% of respondents identifying the controller as a critical or important factor in PACS design, the report underscores how the choice of controller platform has become a strategic decision for today’s security leaders. Read Now

  • Overwhelming Majority of CISOs Anticipate Surge in Cyber Attacks Over the Next Three Years

    An overwhelming 98% of chief information security officers (CISOs) expect a surge in cyber attacks over the next three years as organizations face an increasingly complex and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital threat landscape. This is according to new research conducted among 300 CISOs, chief information officers (CIOs), and senior IT professionals by CSC1, the leading provider of enterprise-class domain and domain name system (DNS) security. Read Now

  • ASIS International Introduces New ANSI-Approved Investigations Standard

    • Guard Services
  • Cloud Security Alliance Brings AI-Assisted Auditing to Cloud Computing

    The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today introduced an innovative addition to its suite of Security, Trust, Assurance and Risk (STAR) Registry assessments with the launch of Valid-AI-ted, an AI-powered, automated validation system. The new tool provides an automated quality check of assurance information of STAR Level 1 self-assessments using state-of-the-art LLM technology. Read Now

  • Report: Nearly 1 in 5 Healthcare Leaders Say Cyberattacks Have Impacted Patient Care

    Omega Systems, a provider of managed IT and security services, today released new research that reveals the growing impact of cybersecurity challenges on leading healthcare organizations and patient safety. According to the 2025 Healthcare IT Landscape Report, 19% of healthcare leaders say a cyberattack has already disrupted patient care, and more than half (52%) believe a fatal cyber-related incident is inevitable within the next five years. Read Now

New Products

  • ResponderLink

    ResponderLink

    Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), an Alarm.com company and a global leader in gunshot detection solutions, has introduced ResponderLink, a groundbreaking new 911 notification service for gunshot events. ResponderLink completes the circle from detection to 911 notification to first responder awareness, giving law enforcement enhanced situational intelligence they urgently need to save lives. Integrating SDS’s proven gunshot detection system with Noonlight’s SendPolice platform, ResponderLink is the first solution to automatically deliver real-time gunshot detection data to 911 call centers and first responders. When shots are detected, the 911 dispatching center, also known as the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP, is contacted based on the gunfire location, enabling faster initiation of life-saving emergency protocols.

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.