A security information and event management (SIEM) solution is a cybersecurity and threat detection technology that collects, aggregates, and analyzes events — from servers, cloud infrastructure, and firewalls — to detect suspicious activity. It is an essential tool for security analysts, enabling proactive threat detection and response measures to counter data breaches and cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity Ventures estimates the cost of cybercrime will hit $8 trillion in 2023 and grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025. As a result of escalating breaches, the SIEM market is growing. However, the traditional methods for threat detection must evolve to provide adequate protection against the volume and strength of modern attacks. As cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated, legacy SIEM solutions can no longer provide sufficient protection.
In this post, we’ll consider why enterprises need more than SIEM for robust cybersecurity and discuss what they should look for when choosing a SIEM solution. Then, we’ll provide an overview of the best tools for augmenting or replacing your SIEM solution.
Why you might augment or replace your SIEM solution
Differentiating real, time-sensitive threats from noise and potential diversions can be an arduous task. That’s the hope of bad actors; after all, cyber assailants often use misdirection tactics to confuse security analysts. SIEM augmentation can leverage technologies — such as machine learning and advanced data analytics — to provide the following benefits:- Threat detection, enabling faster response times and threat mitigation through active activity monitoring and analysis
- Threat intelligence, providing insights to understand attackers’ motives, targets, and behaviors
- Task automation, reducing the burden on security analysts and allowing them to focus less on repetitive work units and more on strategic decisions
- Discovery of elusive correlations between security events, equipping security analysts with a deeper understanding of ongoing breaches
What to look for in a SIEM augmentation or replacement
SIEM augmentation solutions provide various capabilities and features. When evaluating potential tools, consider your organization’s specific requirements. Common capabilities among solutions include:Scalability and performance
- Analyzes vast amounts of various data with minimal latency
- Provides specific recommendations for ongoing threats
- Scales while retaining accurate performance
Support for various data sources
- Seamless data ingestion and normalization
- Support for a wide variety of data formats coming from various third-party software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers
- Continuous updates and upgrades to data parsers, supporting multi-cloud and on-premises infrastructures
- Ability for organizations to “log everything” to eliminate blind spots while maintaining affordability
Comprehensive real-time visibility
- Customizable dashboards that cut through the noise, enabling analysts to quickly and confidently decide which actions require immediate attention
- Real-time data with minimal latency, facilitating instant threat detection
- Configurable alerting that integrates seamlessly with third-party tools, yielding immediate notification and response
Cost-effectiveness
- Provides high business value and strong customer support
- Includes tiers for different use cases and organization sizes
- Offers a pay-as-you-go model with no long-term commitments
- Eliminates hidden costs by offering predictable licensing with minimal maintenance costs
Leverages user behavior analytics
- Integrates with systems that use AI/machine learning (ML) to analyze activity for anomalous usage patterns
- Uncovers hidden insights that contribute to more accurate predictions and diagnoses
- Reduces reliance on human analysis and the probability of error
- Works in conjunction with identity threat detection and response (ITDR) tools to uncover identity-based threats and potential insider attacks
Top solutions to augment or replace your SIEM
Today’s market offers a multitude of solutions for augmenting or replacing your SIEM. These options are designed for various use cases and organization sizes. Let’s examine the top-rated tools currently available.
(in alphabetical order)
- CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale (CrowdStrike)
- ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (CyberRes)
- Elastic Security (Elastic)
- Exabeam Fusion (Exabeam)
- QRadar (IBM Security)
- LogRhythm SIEM (LogRhythm)
- Microsoft Sentinel (Microsoft)
- Unified Defense SIEM (Securonix)
- Splunk Enterprise Security (Splunk)
- Cloud SIEM (Sumo Logic)
CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale (CrowdStrike)
Austin, TX | 2011 | www.crowdstrike.com
CrowdStrike is a global leader in the cybersecurity space, providing cutting-edge solutions that cover all areas of cybersecurity, such as next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and threat hunting. CrowdStrike offers an enterprise-level next-gen SIEM tool called CrowdStrike® Falcon LogScale™, which is notable for:
- Enormous scaling possibilities, benchmarked to support ingestion of over one petabyte of data per day
- Exceptionally fast search capabilities, which allow for scanning up to three billion records per second
- An intuitive user interface with real-time, customizable, and easy-to-interpret dashboards for security monitoring and compliance
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (CyberRes)
Santa Clara, CA | 1976 | www.microfocus.com/en-us/cyberres
CyberRes is a technology company owned by OpenText that focuses on cyber resilience. As part of its broad portfolio of tools, CyberRes provides a SIEM solution called ArcSight, which offers:
- Seamless integration with existing security operations center (SOC) and security orchestration automation and response (SOAR) tools
- Real-time correlation of data points, which enables constant updates of potential security threats
- Instant alerting capabilities
Elastic Security (Elastic)
Mountain View, CA | 2012 | www.elastic.co
Elastic is a widely known software company that focuses on observability and monitoring tools. It is most famous for its ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana), which serves as the primary tool for log ingestion and analysis for many organizations. Elastic Security is a SIEM tool that provides:
- Security analytics that help uncover hidden risks
- Data normalization with the Elastic Common Schema (ECS)
- Deployment options for various cloud and on-premises environments
Exabeam Fusion (Exabeam)
Foster City, CA | 2013 | www.exabeam.com
Exabeam is a rapidly growing cybersecurity startup that focuses on advancing security operations. Exabeam Fusion is a cloud-native SIEM solution that offers the following:
- Advanced threat detection and response with Exabeam Smart Timelines
- Rapid log ingestion and processing (over one million events per second)
- An easy-to-use search feature that provides instant results
QRadar (IBM Security)
Cambridge, MA | 2015 | https://www.ibm.com/security
IBM is one of the oldest and most successful technology companies, known across the globe for its wide range of hardware and software solutions. It has been an active leader in cybersecurity for several decades. In recent years, IBM has successfully expanded into the cloud computing space. IBM Security QRadar is a security intelligence tool that offers:
- 700+ supported integrations and partner extensions
- AI-powered threat detection
- Managed services for cloud migration support
LogRhythm SIEM (LogRhythm)
Boulder, CO | 2003 | logrhythm.com
LogRhythm is a technology company that specializes in security intelligence, log management, and the reduction of cyber and operational risk. LogRhythm SIEM provides the following features:
- Built-in incident management tools that enable faster resolution times
- A unified platform with prebuilt dashboards, alerts, and reports
- Machine Data Intelligence (MDI) Fabric that enables advanced log parsing and analysis
Microsoft Sentinel (Microsoft)
Redmond, WA | 1975 | www.microsoft.com
Microsoft has been a household name in the tech industry for many decades. It produces various sorts of software, from operating systems to team collaboration platforms. Its SIEM tool, Microsoft Sentinel, offers:
- Security data aggregation from various sources with data connectors
- Dedicated playbooks to help automate and orchestrate threat responses
- Out-of-the-box integration with other Microsoft tools, such as Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Defender
Unified Defense SIEM (Securonix)
Addison, TX | 2007 | www.securonix.com
Securonix is a cybersecurity company that provides innovative solutions for SIEM and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA). Unified Defense SIEM is a Securonix software that offers:
- The Bring Your Own Snowflake feature, which allows organizations to integrate their existing Snowflake Data Cloud Platform with Securonix analytics
- Autonomous Threat Sweeper (ATS) that automatically and retroactively hunts for new and emerging threats
- Cloud-native solution with flexible deployment options
Splunk Enterprise Security (Splunk)
San Francisco, CA | 2003 | www.splunk.com
Splunk is a software company that specializes in providing observability, data analysis, and cybersecurity services. At the time of this writing, Cisco is in the process of acquiring Splunk. Splunk Enterprise Security offers:
- Risk-based alerting that enables analysts to define risk thresholds for alerts to avoid false positives and alert fatigue
- Over 1,400 built-in threat detections for frameworks, such as MITRE ATT&CK®, NIST, CIS 20, and Kill Chain
- Regular security content updates from the Splunk Threat Research Team
Cloud SIEM (Sumo Logic)
Redwood City, CA | 2010 | www.sumologic.com
Sumo Logic specializes in cloud observability, security, and analytics. It labels itself as a pioneer of continuous intelligence, enabling companies to address challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation. Its security tool, Cloud SIEM, offers:
- 24/7 enterprise customer support
- Numerous API integrations that pull telemetry from sources such as Okta, Amazon GuardDuty, and Microsoft Office 365
- Advanced correlation and detection of threats across hybrid, multi-cloud, and on-premises environments
Conclusion
Organizations everywhere have experienced a substantial uptick in the frequency, sophistication, and cost of cybersecurity attacks. SIEM tools are a necessity in the battle against cyberattacks. In this article, we reviewed the best modern SIEM solutions or tools to augment an enterprise’s current SIEM.
Choosing the right solution depends on the size and industry of your organization. Regardless of your use case, make sure to look for solutions that support your business needs — particularly in the areas of scalability, performance, machine learning capabilities, and cost-effectiveness.
