How CISOs Can Use a SIEM Solution to Show Value of Their Program

A CISO showing value of a SIEM solution to coworker

A security information and event management (SIEM) solution provides real-time visibility across an organization’s network and IT environment, making it more efficient to detect and respond to cyberthreats.

In order to meet security needs for growing business demands, expanding team structures and external customers, compliance requirements, remote workforce — on top of combating the ever-evolving landscape of cyberattacks — CISOs are investing in SIEM solutions to address several of these challenges.

If you’re on the hunt to learn more about SIEM technology, here’s what a SIEM solution is and how CISOs can use this software to show the value of their program.

What is a SIEM Solution?

LogRhythm's SIEM solution

A SIEM solution aggregates event data from a variety of sources within your network infrastructure (e.g., security devices, network devices, applications, and endpoints). SIEM software offers a centralized view of your log data and uses rules and security event correlations to turn log entries into actionable insight.

There are several different SIEM providers that vary in scope and possess different features such as basic log management, alert functionality, dashboards and visualizations, automated response, machine learning, and much more.

Here is an example of how LogRhythm’s NextGen SIEM Platform can improve your security operations with enhanced incident response capabilities.

Ways SIEM Solutions Can Show Value of Your Program 

Are SIEM solutions worth the investment? Here are three ways CISOs can show the value of their program using a SIEM.

1. Effective Compliance Reporting

Regulatory compliance is a necessary component of modern business. Non-compliance can lead to many different consequences such as data breaches, legal action, damaged reputation, loss of contracts or revenue, and more.

As compliance mandates have become more prevalent over the years, so has the need for certain technology solutions that can help meet these requirements. SIEM solutions can streamline enterprise compliance reporting efforts through a centralized logging solution and help SOC teams prepare audits for compliance purposes.

Especially in highly regulated industries such as health, finance, and education, keeping up with compliance can seem like a daunting task, but SIEM products often have built-in support for common compliance frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR.

Using SIEM solutions will save organizations a considerable about of time and resources in order to meet compliance requirements. Take a look at how LogRhythm enables security teams to address cybersecurity regulations by providing preconfigured compliance automation modules.

2. SIEM Use Cases Deliver Results 

Building use cases for SIEM solutions should be a high priority for CISOs. Security use cases help guide a SIEM to identify the threats that are relevant to an organization and deliver valuable insight based on data and analytics. When done correctly, they can be extremely effective and increase security posture by preventing duplicates, gaps in coverage, and false negatives or false positives.

Gartner recently released an extensive research report, How to Build Security Use Cases for Your SIEM, that shows CISOs how to get the highest return from a SIEM use case and why it is so important. Gartner explains a valid scenario:

“For example, a SIEM tool could provide business-line managers with security insights that may be critical to their business resilience (e.g., user behavior analytics and monitoring of time, location, and duration of access for suppliers, partners and third parties), earning goodwill and demonstrating value to the enterprise. Building security use cases for SIEM is a high-value exercise that needs a strong sponsor and the right stakeholders.” – How to Build Security Use Cases for Your SIEM. Gartner. (2020)

Well-defined SIEM use cases that cohere to internal policy, regulations, and compliance can deliver impactful results to help CISOs prove the value of their program.

3. SIEM Solutions Reduce MTTD and MTTR

According to FireEye, in 2019 the average number of days an attacker was present in a victim network before detection was 56. This amount of time can cost businesses millions of dollars, damage reputation and brand loyalty, and can also put organizations at risk for lawsuits if breaches are not handled accordingly.

SIEM solutions can help your team detect and responds to threats in real time by automating repetitive tasks and greatly reducing mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR). They allow your team to focus on using expert skills that make an impact on the program, rather than manual, repetitive tasks. With less platform switching and a standardized process for incident management, you can improve the maturity of your security operations.

It’s important to speak in terms of risk to the board. If your security investments are streamlining processes and reducing damaging risk, then the value of your program will increase. You can capture key incident response milestones and complete audit trails to report metrics back to C-suite executives in order to gain more board-level support.

Explore LogRhythm’s SIEM NextGen SIEM Platform 

The LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform will help you defend your enterprise with intuitive analytics and a seamless incident response workflow. Uncover threats more efficiently, improve your response process, and minimize risk — all within a single platform.

Laptop screen showing LogRhythm's SIEM solution.

Schedule a demo with a product specialist to learn more about how LogRhythm can help improve your security operations and provide higher value for your program.