SIEM Implementation in 4 Steps

What Is Managed SIEM? 

What Is SIEM Implementation? 

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) implementation refers to the process of deploying and configuring a SIEM system within an organization’s IT infrastructure. A SIEM system is a security solution that collects, analyzes, and correlates data from various sources, such as network devices, servers, and applications, to detect and respond to potential security threats in real-time. SIEM implementation involves several steps, including planning, installation, configuration, fine-tuning, and ongoing management and maintenance.

Tips from the expert

Steve Moore is Vice President and Chief Security Strategist at Exabeam, helping drive solutions for threat detection and advising customers on security programs and breach response. He is the host of the “The New CISO Podcast,” a Forbes Tech Council member, and Co-founder of TEN18 at Exabeam.

In my experience, here are tips that can help you master SIEM implementation and post-deployment success:

Integrate cross-team collaboration workflows
Ensure that incident response workflows involve not just security teams but also relevant business units, IT, and legal teams. Create playbooks that outline roles and responsibilities for various attack scenarios.

Align SIEM use cases with business priorities
Go beyond generic security needs. Identify specific business-critical processes or sensitive data that require heightened protection. For example, focus on securing financial systems or protecting intellectual property first.

Automate noise reduction before ingestion
Deploy log filtering mechanisms at the source to eliminate redundant or irrelevant data. This step prevents unnecessary storage costs and ensures the SIEM focuses on actionable insights.

Incorporate contextual enrichment at ingestion
Add metadata such as asset criticality, user roles, or geolocation data to logs during ingestion. This provides context for alerts, enabling better prioritization during incident analysis.

Set thresholds for acceptable false positives
Work with stakeholders to define acceptable levels of false positives for different alert types. This helps balance detection sensitivity with alert fatigue, especially for newly implemented systems.

What Are the Benefits of Implementing SIEM? 

Implementing a SIEM solution provides several benefits to organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture. Some of the key benefits of SIEM implementation include:

• Improved threat detection and response: SIEM systems collect and analyze data from multiple sources, enabling organizations to detect and respond to security threats in real-time. By correlating events and identifying patterns, SIEMs can help identify potential attacks or breaches that might otherwise go unnoticed.
• Compliance management: Many industries are subject to regulatory compliance requirements related to data security and privacy. SIEM solutions can help organizations meet these requirements by providing a centralized platform for monitoring and reporting on security events, ensuring that the necessary controls are in place to protect sensitive data.
• Reduced incident response times: SIEM systems provide real-time alerts and notifications when security incidents are detected, enabling security teams to respond more quickly and effectively. This can help minimize the potential damage caused by security breaches and limit the impact on an organization’s operations.
• Enhanced visibility and control: SIEM implementation offers organizations increased visibility into their IT environments, allowing them to monitor and manage security events across their entire infrastructure. This helps to identify potential vulnerabilities, optimize security controls, and streamline incident response processes.
• Streamlined forensic analysis: In the event of a security incident, SIEM solutions can provide valuable insights into the nature and scope of the attack, making it easier for security teams to conduct forensic analysis and determine the root cause of the breach.
• Cost savings and resource optimization: By automating many aspects of security monitoring and event management, SIEM implementation can help organizations save time and resources. This allows security teams to focus on more strategic tasks, such as threat hunting or improving security controls, rather than manually analyzing logs and data.

SIEM Implementation in 4 Steps

A successful SIEM implementation requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing review to ensure that the system meets the organization’s security and compliance needs. Here’s a discussion of the key steps involved in the process:

1. Establish Requirements 

Before implementing a SIEM solution, it’s crucial to identify the organization’s specific security and compliance requirements. This involves:

• Regulatory landscape: Research the relevant industry-specific regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS) and internal policies that dictate your organization’s security and compliance requirements.
• Data sources: Identify all data sources to be monitored, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, endpoint security tools, authentication systems, and application logs. Prioritize them based on their criticality and risk levels.
• Desired outcomes: Clearly articulate the goals of implementing a SIEM solution, such as reducing incident response time, ensuring compliance with specific regulations, or use case priorities such as gaining insights into user behavior.

2. Implementation Planning

Once the requirements are established, a detailed implementation plan should be developed. This plan should cover:

• SIEM selection: Evaluate various SIEM solutions in the market based on factors like functionality, scalability, ease of use, integration capabilities, and cost. Consider conducting a proof-of-concept to help make an informed decision.
• Project scope and timeline: Outline the scope of the SIEM implementation project, including the number of data sources, required integrations, and customizations. Establish a realistic timeline with milestones for each phase of the project.
• Stakeholder involvement: Engage key stakeholders from IT, security, and compliance teams to ensure collaboration, communication, and alignment of goals. Assign specific roles and responsibilities to the team members.
• Training plan: Develop a training program to educate team members on using and managing the SIEM system effectively. This should cover topics like system administration, incident response, reporting, and troubleshooting.

3. Deployment and Review

The deployment phase involves installing, configuring, and integrating the SIEM solution with the organization’s IT infrastructure. Key tasks include:

• SIEM installation: Set up the SIEM solution by installing the required software or hardware, as well as necessary agents or connectors on the relevant devices.
• Configuration: Define the data normalization and correlation rules to ensure that events from different sources are accurately analyzed and correlated. Create custom rules, alerts, and dashboards tailored to your organization’s needs.
• Security policies and workflows: Develop and implement security policies to govern the use of the SIEM system. Establish response workflows for handling alerts and incidents, including escalation procedures and communication channels.
• Testing: Conduct thorough testing of the SIEM system to validate its functionality, effectiveness, and accuracy in detecting threats, generating alerts, and providing context for incident response.
• Review and refinement: Gather feedback from stakeholders and end-users to identify areas for improvement. Refine the system configuration, rules, and alerts to address any gaps or issues discovered during the testing and review phase.

4. Post-Implementation

Following the deployment and initial review, the SIEM system should be continuously monitored, maintained, and optimized. This includes:

• Policy and rule updates: Regularly review and update security policies, rules, and alerts to ensure they remain relevant and effective in the face of evolving threats and changing business requirements.
• Performance optimization: Monitor the SIEM system’s performance and resource utilization, and make necessary adjustments to ensure optimal efficiency.
• Threat intelligence: Integrate the SIEM solution with external threat intelligence feeds to stay updated on the latest security threats, vulnerabilities, and trends.
• Ongoing training and support: Provide continuous training, documentation, and support to team members to ensure they can effectively manage and use the SIEM system.
• Periodic reviews and audits: Conduct regular reviews and audits of the SIEM system to assess its effectiveness, compliance, and alignment with the organization’s security and compliance needs. Use these findings to make data-driven decisions for further optimization and improvement.

SIEM Implementation with Exabeam

Exabeam’s New-Scale SIEM is a breakthrough combination of the capabilities security operations staff need in products they want to use. These capabilities include rapid data ingestion, a cloud-native data lake, and hyper-quick query performance. Behavioral analytics baseline the normal behavior of users and devices to detect, prioritize, and respond to anomalies based on risk. An automated investigation experience across the TDIR workflow provides a complete picture of a threat, automating manual routines and simplifying complex work.

Exabeam Professional Services are available to accelerate SIEM deployment while decreasing time to value. We offer various implementation packages including custom time and materials (T&M) deployment services to help get up and running quickly to maximize the investment in Exabeam. 

Exabeam is dedicated to the success of our customers and their Exabeam implementations. We strive to provide our customers with access to the best deployment service engineers and project managers in the industry, to ensure successful implementation and adoption.