Exabeam’s Cloud-based Security Operations Platform Improves Insights and Efficiency for BBS

Is it possible to integrate log management with a small staff? This was a question Japan’s Business Brain Showa-Ota Inc. (BBS) team asked when they started exploring a better way to secure their organization. After assessing many SIEM products, BBS discovered Exabeam fulfills its need without replacing equipment or adding additional personnel.

Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, BBS provides services ranging from consulting, sales intelligence (SI), and business establishment to system maintenance/operation and business process outsourcing (BPO). After conducting a routine information security assessment, IS General Manager Hitoshi Uehara began a search for a platform for monitoring, analyzing, managing, and accumulating multiple log files.

Effective log use a key requirement 

BBS runs several servers in addition to security and network products. From the significant number of logs it collects and stores from disparate sources, it used to only search for relevant data when faced with a security event. They were looking for an efficient way to make advantageous use of its saved logs for additional intelligence and insights. 

As is common practice in many global businesses, BBS used to invest many analyst man-hours investigating and responding to minor everyday incidents. Its limited personnel had to contend with a system that produced too many false positives. With more of its staff working remotely due to the pandemic, the BBS team knew more efficient log analysis was an important part of their security operations.

The team considered several SIEM products and integrated SOC services, but the high implementation cost along with operational hurdles made them rethink how to operate integrated log management with limited personnel. One option they explored was introducing a product that facilitates log management for each device. When they were introduced to Exabeam, Uehara saw they could use existing logs without replacing equipment. 

Once Exabeam Fusion SIEM was deployed, Uehara appreciated how its User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA) flexibly handles a wide range of log sources—even those that are text-based. And it automatically adds contextual data to each event, which greatly helps his staff determine their importance through its easy-to-understand UI. 

For BBS, early detection of fraud had previously been very difficult. But now Exabeam adds a risk score to all suspicious activities, so at a glance, Uehara’s team can not only assess what is different, but exactly why it’s different. 

“Users and terminals are linked from various logs and shown on Exabeam’s timeline, so it’s an advantage that our staff can quickly grasp a situation even without advanced skills.” Hitoshi Uehara, IS General Manager, BBS

Lower operational cost

Many existing SIEM products have a high cost associated with them, or they require a large SOC team to operate. Specialized knowledge and support were usually required, requiring teams like BBS to tread a continuous “hire and train” personnel loop.

When BBS learned about how Exabeam could solve reducing repetitive tasks for his staff, Uehara said, “I was fascinated that the part humans need to analyze could be greatly reduced.”

He also recognizes how Exabeam doesn’t correspondingly increase BBS’s licensing costs with each log type it ingests. Its flat pricing provides the company with the most expansive security posture for its relatively modest investment.

To learn how BBS is leveraging Exabeam’s Cloud-based SMP for improved Insights and efficiency, read the case study.