How do SIEM solutions help SOC analysts?

A security operations centre (SOC) is responsible for defending an organisation against cyber attacks. SOC analysts constantly monitor their company’s systems and networks, investigating any potential threats and deploying countermeasures where necessary.

What is SIEM?

A security information and event management (SIEM) solution allows organisations to detect and address cyber threats before they’re able to disrupt business operations.

SIEM automates many of the processes associated with threat detection and incident response. As such, it’s become prevalent in SOCs and, thanks to the power of machine learning and AI, offers highly advanced user and entity behaviour analytics (UEBA).

Essentially, the SIEM takes much of the burden off SOC analysts and allows them to focus their skills and expertise on any potential threats that are most likely to constitute a genuine attack against their networks or systems.

The advantages of SIEM for SOC analysts

An SIEM system is a pivotal aspect of a solid SOC team and offers plenty of advantages that all help with protecting organisations against cyber attacks.

Log aggregation

One key benefit of using an SIEM system is that it will integrate with a vast array of different security solutions and endpoints, automatically storing log files and the alert data generated from them. The solution will translate all of this data into a single format and provide the resultant information to SOC analysts to facilitate threat hunting and incident detection.

Automated threat detection

A lot of SIEM solutions are programmed with protocols that support the detection of suspicious activity. These integrated detection rules help SOC analysts by quickly flagging certain scenarios, like when too many failed login attempts are registered on a user account. Many responses can be automated, allowing analysts to focus on more pressing threats.

Additional context

The vast majority of suspicious activities or indications of cyber attacks are nothing more than benign abnormalities. SIEM systems collect, store and organise information that helps identify which threats are most likely to be true. This means that SOC analysts waste less time on false positives and can concentrate their efforts on real attacks.

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