Top Three Challenges SMBs Face With Security Information & Event Management Solutions (SIEM)

Over the last decade, cybercriminals have gained the necessary resources to make it easier and more lucrative for them to attack small-to-medium-sized businesses. The 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report not only shows the odds of experiencing a data breach have gone up by a third in less than a decade, but the cost of these data breaches is also on the rise. Additionally, small businesses face disproportionately larger costs than their enterprise counterparts when an attack is successful. This report highlights the importance of SMBs being prepared, now more than ever, to quickly identify and respond to potential cyberattacks.

One common way businesses increase their security posture is by implementing, and using, a Security Information and Event Management tool—SIEM for short. A SIEM solution at its core, aggregates and normalizes log and event data from across an entire network making it easier to identify and respond to attacks, compromised data, and security threats.

However, many SMBs feel a SIEM solution is out of reach for their organizations for three main reasons:

1. Complexity
   The complexity starts right away with most traditional SIEM vendors. Connecting different log sources often requires building parsers or writing (and possibly learning) RegEx to ingest and normalize log data. Once the data has been consolidated, recalling the data adds another layer of complexity. For example, wanting to see logins from a particular user can require writing a query in language created specifically for their SIEM. Additionally, feature bloat often makes it difficult to know how to find answers to simple questions.
   
   
2. Expertise Requirements
   A SIEM is only as effective as the rules put in place to identify, alert on, and respond to potential threats. Without a deep understanding of the types of activities captured by logs, and the behaviors indicating malicious or risky behaviors, setting up the rules can be daunting. Especially if the SIEM doesn’t come with any pre-built rules. With limited time, and a scarcity of available security professionals, setting up a SIEM can seem like too big of a project to take on
   
   
3. Expense
   Aggregating all log and event data in one place is ideal. However, the licensing models of many SIEM solutions can quickly price out SMBs. Many of the most common SIEM solutions on the market are SaaS products. The price changes based on log volume being sent to the product. This leads to two main problems, pricing being unpredictable and/or IT pros needing to cherry pick which logs they will collect and store…hope you pick the right ones.

At SolarWinds we understand how important it is for IT pros at SMBs to gain valuable time back and automate as much as possible—including threat detection and response. That’s why we built Security Event Manager (SEM). It’s a SIEM solution built for resource-constrained IT pros needing to advance their organization’s security beyond patching, backups, and firewall configurations. SEM is designed to provide the most essential functions of a SIEM to help improve security posture, more easily meet compliance requirements, and reduce the time and complexity of an audit.

How Does SolarWinds Security Event Manager Differ From Other SIEM Products?

1. Easy to Deploy and Use
   Deployment is flexible via virtual appliance potentially located on-premises or in the public cloud (such as Azure or AWS). Many users report SEM is up and running within fifteen minutes, no professional services required. Log collection and normalization is done by either enabling one or more of the hundreds of pre-built connectors and sending logs to SEM or by deploying the SEM agent.
   
   It has a simple and clean UI, focused on the features SMBs find most important. Such as the dashboard to help visualize important trends and patterns in log and event data:
   
   As well as a quick and easy keyword search providing faster log recall without the need to learn specialized query languages:
   
   
   
2. Provides Expertise and Value Out of the Box
   Finding value with the tool will not be an issue. An integrated threat intelligence feed and hundreds of pre-defined filters, rules, and responses, not only make it faster and easier for users to identify threats, but also automate notifications or corrective actions.
   
   Beyond identifying and responding to threats, the pre-built reports make demonstrating compliance a breeze.
   
   The best part is users aren’t confined to out-of-the-box content. As their organizations needs change and grow, or as they become even better acquainted with the tool, the pre-defined content, visualizations, and reports are flexible.
   
   
3. Priced With SMBs in Mind
   SolarWinds Security Event Manager has a simple licensing model. SEM is licensed by the number of log-emitting sources sent to the tool. No need to pick and choose which logs to send, and no need to worry about a large influx of logs breaking your budget. Users get all the features of SEM and industry leading support for a single price. The pricing model is built to scale with the user’s environment, the price per node dropping at higher tiers. For those looking to monitor workstations, infrastructure, and applications, special discounted pricing is available. Same deal, one price for all features, for each workstation.

If you’re an IT pro at an SMB looking to get a better handle on cyber security or compliance reporting, give SEM a shot. You can download a free, 30-day trial here.