Mastering SIEM: 4 Essential Phases for a Successful Log Implementation

Written by Peter Ramadan, CISSP

Cybercriminals are increasingly adept at identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities within multiple IT environments such as Microsoft, GCP, AWS, etc. These vulnerabilities can exist anywhere—from network infrastructures and software applications to an organization's human elements. The consequences of such exploits are not just data breaches but can extend to severe financial losses and damage to a company's reputation.

A proactive phased approach to your SIEM implementation is crucial. By ensuring that you are utilizing your SIEM to it's full potential vulnerabilities, you can ensure your businesses can prevent potential threats from becoming actual breaches. This strategic vigilance is key to maintaining the security and trust of clients and partners.

What type of SIEM Implementation is right for my organization?

In-House SIEM

Organizations may recruit and train their own team to run an in-house Security Operations Center (SOC), fearing a Managed Security Services Provider’s (MSSP) unfamiliarity with the business, risk of data exposure, and loss of control. However, this option can be three to five times more expensive and can result in alarm familiarity/noise, leading to important alarms being ignored. This option may be available for those companies further in their lifecycle and is often seen as an “end goal” for many security teams.

Co-Managed SIEM

An MSSP deploys SIEM from scratch or integrates it with an organization’s existing security infrastructure and personnel to improve security posture. This ensures a wider security cover (knowledge of common issues across the industry) at lower cost and generally quicker deployment, depending on the customization. Co-managing also ensures the in-house team remains up-to-date and has access to state-of-the-art security tools. This option is often seen as a partnership between a managed security services provider and the client security team, helping the client build their operations and manage long-term projects.

Multi-Tenant SIEM

This SIEM option can be compared to multiple renters living in the same apartment complex. A scalable, centralized SIEM, allows security management for multiple client instances (tenants that may be geographically distributed), allowing data segregation, role-based access, and lower costs due to shared resources. This option however, has the disadvantage of being a single point of failure that can have a cascading effect on all tenants.

Phases for Success SIEM Implementation

PHASE 1: Assemble your Implementation Team

Schedule a kickoff call with your implementation team to begin discussing the requirements needed to integrate your log sources into your SIEM.

Many of the teams you will need to prepare for this project for log ingestion need to protect your enterprise environment may include:

• • Deployment Team: Subject matter expert of the SIEM, assists with verifying successful log integrations with target systems and ensuring health as well as building the appropriate alarms and rules to maximize the capabilities of the system while making sure the SIEM is running at optimal efficiency.

• • Networking: Firewalls, IDS/IPS, Switches, and Wireless Access Controllers

• • Infrastructure: Cloud environments such as Microsoft Office 365, Azure, AWS, health monitoring services, and servers.

• • Endpoint Management: Mobile Device Management tools such as JAMF and Microsoft Intune, and ticketing management systems.

• • Security Operations: Vulnerability management tools, email security, physical monitoring systems, threat intelligence providers, identity access management, multi-factor authentication tools, and anti-virus and/or EDR tools.

PHASE 2: Operational and Security Alert Configuration

During this phase, the deployment team assists in reviewing current log collection and, if needed, collecting additional required log sources from the network. This process helps eliminate unnecessary “noise” and provides the best information to be ingested into the SIEM.

Once the proper log sources are being fed into the SIEM, the deployment team can start building out the roles for their support and security to send operational and security alarms by following these steps:

• • Use the MITRE ATT&CK Framework to map adversary TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) relevant to your organization.

• • Create detection rules based on ATT&CK techniques, such as identifying unusual process execution or lateral movement.

• • Prioritize high-risk threats and reduce false positives by aligning SIEM alerts with real-world attack scenarios.

• • Standardize and document your monitoring strategy for continuous improvement and enhanced detection capabilities.

By aligning your alerting rules with the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, you can prioritize high-risk threats, reduce false positives, and ensure your SIEM provides actionable intelligence that aligns with real-world attack scenarios. This approach not only strengthens your detection capabilities but also helps standardize and document your monitoring strategy for continuous improvement.

PHASE 3: Incident Response Procedures During Implementation

The Security teams analysts will need to monitor the initial alerts coming into the SIEM and perform initial tuning. This helps to ensure that the alarms are operating properly, that the suppression thresholds are properly set to avoid too many alarms, and that there is no duplication.

This is one danger area of SIEM installations, as the initial baselining and operational turning can be overwhelming for many organizations monitoring alerts. During this period, the deployment team will finalize the escalation paths and re-align the escalation plan if necessary to flag any un-actionable or ineffective alerts.

PHASE 4: Ongoing Management and Monitoring

As the false alarms subside and the SIEM alerts stabilize, the environment now has a fully functioning and tuned SIEM. The security team will continue to monitor security alerts and conduct investigations, while ensuring that the SIEM is running at peak performance. During this time, the leaderships teams will begin running quarterly business reviews, offering suggestions to help improve the services and the overall security posture.

Conclusion with Supporting Facts

The successful implementation of a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system can significantly reduce cyber attacks and their impact by enhancing an organization's ability to detect, analyze, and respond to threats. Below are some relevant statistics that highlight the success of SIEM implementations:

1. Improved Threat Detection

• • According to a Ponemon Institute study, organizations that use SIEM tools improve their threat detection rate by up to 60%, as SIEM centralizes and correlates data to identify threats more effectively.

• • SIEM systems reduce the time to detect and contain a breach. For example, organizations using SIEM tools often detect breaches in days rather than weeks or months.

2. Faster Incident Response

• • A study by Cybersecurity Insiders found that 78% of organizations using SIEM systems experienced a significant reduction in Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) to incidents.

• • Organizations with SIEM solutions are 75% more likely to respond to incidents within hours compared to those without SIEM.

3. Reduced Costs from Cyber Attacks

• • The 2023 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report highlights that companies using advanced tools like SIEM save an average of $1.1 million per breach compared to companies without such solutions.

• • Automated solutions, including SIEM, can reduce data breach costs by over 27% due to quicker containment and mitigation.

4. Compliance Improvements

• • SIEM systems help organizations achieve and maintain regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS). According to a 2022 SANS survey, 85% of organizations found SIEM critical for meeting compliance requirements, reducing fines and penalties associated with non-compliance.

5. Threat Intelligence Integration

• • Companies leveraging SIEM platforms with integrated threat intelligence report a 30–40% decrease in successful phishing and malware attacks, thanks to proactive blocking of known threats.

6. Proactive Risk Management

• • Gartner reports that organizations with well-implemented SIEM systems are 25% more proactive in identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses in their infrastructure compared to those without SIEM.

A well-implemented SIEM isn't just a shield—it's your all-seeing sentinel, your early warning siren, and your ace detective. Because in the game of digital defense, it's better to spot the wolf at the door than clean up after it’s already in the henhouse.