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Cybercrime is growing worldwide, and it’s more important than ever to make sure your company’s data is protected. Even a single security breach can cost any sized business an average of $200,000. Security information and event management (SIEM) software provides tools and analytics to protect business networks from breaches.
To find the perfect SIEM software for your business, use our Product Selection Tool by clicking on the banner at the top of this page. After answering a few questions, you’ll get a short list of software tailored to your company’s needs.
Best SIEM tools by deployment type
| Cloud Only | Cloud & On-Premise |
  Splunk |  Exabeam |
 Rapid7IDR |  LogRhythm |
 Sumo Logic |  IBM QRadar |
Table of Contents
- What is SIEM software?
- Common features in SIEM tools
- Best SIEM software 2020
- Benefits of SIEM tools
- The future of security information management
- Choosing SIEM software for your business
What is SIEM software?
SIEM software is a set of tools that combines security event management (SEM) with security information management (SIM) to detect and respond to threats that breach a network. The system aggregates data from all of the devices on a network to determine when and where a breach is happening. This way, the IT team can respond more quickly and contain the breach before it does any more damage.
Who uses SIEM software?
Enterprise companies with a lot of devices on their networks purchase SIEM tools so they can monitor those endpoints in real time. These companies also dedicate IT personnel to maintaining the system. The software’s scope and resource requirements mean that it’s not a practical option for most small businesses. Additionally, the software can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, making it cost prohibitive for many small businesses.
Common features in SIEM tools
Many SIEM tools share common features to provide better security. Look for these when you’re choosing SIEM software for your business.
Threat detection
SIEM software specializes in helping businesses detect threats on their network. It gathers thousands of data points from all of the devices on your network—including user behavior—to identify when something strange is happening. When these anomalies are detected, the system sends alerts to the IT team, so they can analyze the issue and contain any potential threats. Most systems handle threat detection in real time.
Also read: Top 5 Security-as-a-Service Providers
Real-time monitoring
Real-time monitoring is essential to getting the most up-to-date information about your network. It significantly reduces the delays between when the threat occurs and when your SIEM system picks it up. Real-time monitoring provides faster detection, so any real threats can be detained before they can access much data.
Investigation tools
Along with detecting threats, a solid SIEM software should also provide investigation tools, like event log correlation and log forwarding to help your IT team investigate what happened, so you can prevent it in the future. Event log correlation transforms data from your event logs into insights that give more context to incidents and make them easier to resolve. Log forwarding simply sends incident logs to other applications for further analysis. By gathering data on an incident, your SIEM tools can help analyze and determine whether it was a true breach attempt or simply that someone forgot their password.
Forensics
Similar to investigation tools, forensics helps your IT team analyze and investigate an incident. However, forensics focuses more on finding proof that could be presented in a courtroom if necessary. Forensics tools can’t have the ability to be modified in any way, must limit who can access the data, and must collect data in a tamper-proof form. With these tools, IT teams can find out where the threat originated, how much data it accessed, and any damage it caused before it was contained. Forensics tools can also help you improve your defenses against future attacks by learning about vulnerabilities that led to past breaches.
Behavioral analytics
SIEM tools with behavioral analytics can help your IT team make sure that only authorized personnel and devices are accessing your network. These tools can flag abnormal behaviors and catch anomalies before they turn into actual breaches. For example, if one of your employees has never plugged a USB drive into their computer, but one day they do, the system will flag the anomaly so your IT team can investigate. Behavioral analytics can also aid in figuring out where breaches originated.
Best SIEM software 2020
Looking for the best SIEM software for your business? This comparison chart provides further insight into ten vendors to give you a better idea of how each product will work.
| Product Name | Real-time Monitoring | Endpoint Management | Behavioral Analytics | Compliance Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Blumira | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Cybrhawk SIEM ZTR | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Exabeam | no | no | yes | yes |
IBM QRadar | yes | yes | yes | no |
LogRhythm | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Netsurion EventTracker | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Rapid7 InsightIDR | yes | yes | yes | no |
SolarWinds Security Event Manager | yes | no | no | yes |
Splunk | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Sumo Logic | yes | no | yes | yes |
Most companies have started to include behavioral analytics powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in their SIEM platforms because it reveals information such as who is accessing a business’s network. AI and machine learning can look at behavior to quickly determine if someone is who they say they are. As SIEM software continues to grow, we expect to see this trend to continue and behavioral analytics to become mainstream in the world of SIEM tools.
For an overview of some of these top products, check out this video:
Benefits of SIEM tools
While SIEM software is expensive, it comes with a variety of benefits to keep your business network secure.
Automated response protocols
Many SIEM tools allow you to automate repetitive or labor-intensive tasks, so your IT team can focus on using their expertise where it counts. You can set rulesets within the system, so when one of these security rules is triggered, the system automatically sends an alert to your security team and initiates the response protocols.
Also read: Cybersecurity Trends in 2020: Artificial Intelligence
Faster detection and response
Because SIEM software monitors your network in real time and does so faster than a human, you get faster detection and response times when there are incidents in your network. SIEM tools with AI can also lower the number of false positives and provide risk assessments, so your IT team only has to worry about incidents that could actually cause harm.
More thorough investigations
SIEM software collects data from all of the devices on your network, providing more context to the investigations and simplifying them. The system organizes the data in one central location and provides easy accessibility for your entire security team. This large amount of information also simplifies compliance investigations for businesses in heavily-regulated industries.
The future of security information management
SIEM technology has already been around for over a decade, but it continues to provide invaluable knowledge and insights for enterprise businesses. SIEM software was developed to keep businesses compliant with security regulations, but today’s SIEM software speeds up threat detection and improves investigations.
As cybercrime rises, IT security professionals face higher levels of stress and more work. In fact, 66 percent of people working in IT say they’ve considered looking for a job with less stress, and 51 percent would even take a paycut to do so. As security analysts and IT administrators face higher levels of burnout, AI is expected to simplify their jobs and reduce their workload.
The future of security information management and SIEM software uses AI and machine learning to improve the detection of suspicious activity and simplify IT security investigations. While some tools today include these features, the ones that don’t will include them before long. Additionally, the ones that currently include AI will continue to fine-tune and improve these features to provide better service and security. Not only can AI capabilities accelerate detection, but they can also automate tasks, reduce the number of false positives security teams have to deal with, and identify abnormalities in user behavior.
Choosing SIEM software for your business
When choosing the best SIEM software for your business, it’s important to consider which factors you need the most. While cloud-based software might work well for some companies, if you’re in a heavily-regulated industry, you may need on-premise software to maintain more control. There are tons of different SIEM tools out there, but luckily, you don’t have to handle all of the research on your own.
To find the right SIEM software for your business, use our Product Selection Tool by clicking on the banner at the top of this page. After answering a short survey, you’ll get a list of software vendors customized to meet the needs of your company.