Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions enable organizations to improve their threat detection and incident response processes. They do this by aggregating and analyzing event data – this makes it easier for businesses to identify anomalous or malicious behavior.
A SIEM tool collects event data from a company’s systems, applications, infrastructure, and endpoints, as well as contextual information such as regular user behaviors and existing threat intelligence. The solution will then centralize and normalize that data to make it more accessible. A SIEM tool can analyze this data in real-time to identify unusual behaviors that could indicate the presence of a security threat.
The strongest SIEM solutions have robust reporting features, which provide security teams with detailed forensics of security incidents that they can use to inform and improve their incident response processes. They also offer analytics-based alerting, which notifies security teams of potential threats so that they can respond more quickly and efficiently, reducing the remediation time and—consequently—the damage the threat is able to cause.
As well as detecting security risks and enabling security teams to make data-driven decisions when it comes to incident response, SIEM tools can be used demonstrate compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and SOX. They can also be used to keep track of data usage to help organizations manage their growth.
In this article, we’ll explore the top SIEM solutions designed to help your business identify and efficiently remediate cybersecurity threats. These solutions offer a range of capabilities, including data collection and analysis, threat detection, incident investigation, and alerting. We’ll give you some background information on the provider and the key features of each solution, as well as the type of customer that they are most suitable for.
In 2018, AT&T acquired threat intelligence provider AlienVault to accelerate the growth of its cybersecurity solutions business division. USM Anywhere, previously AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM), is AT&T Cybersecurity’s unified threat detection, incident response, and compliance management platform. The platform combines asset discovery, SIEM event correlation and alerting, with endpoint detection and response (EDR) features to help security teams proactively identify and remediate security threats.
AT&T Cybersecurity USM Anywhere Features:
- Threat intelligence provided by AT&T Alien Labs helps to detect threats so security teams can focus on remediation
- Integrations with a range of third-party security and productivity tools enable security teams to orchestrate and automate remediation actions quickly across other applications
- Cost-effective and easy to set up and navigate
- Clear reporting provides a real-time security overview
Pricing And Plans: USM Anywhere is available via three packages. Essentials, from $1,075/month, is best suited to smaller IT teams looking to quickly implement a security and compliance program. Standard, from $1,695/month, is suitable for security teams looking to improve their incident response processes through automation and in-depth analysis. Premium, from $2,595/month, is suitable for security teams that need to meet specific compliance and audit requirements, as well as improve their security processes.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend USM Anywhere to mid- to large organizations looking to inform and automate their incident response processes, as well as MSPs that want to offer their clients unified security and compliance monitoring.
Exabeam is a cybersecurity provider dedicated to enhancing enterprise security stacks with actionable intelligence. Fusion SIEM (formerly SaaS Cloud) is a cloud-based solution designed to help security teams automate their threat detection and response processes, while minimizing alert fatigue and false positives for SOC teams. The platform also offers pre-packaged reporting to support PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and GDPR compliance, as well as auditing requirements.
Exabeam Fusion SIEM Features:
- Machine learning-driven behavior analytics detects anomalous user and entity behaviors
- All activities are assigned a risk score dependent on how far they divert from “normal” behaviors, based on admin-configured UEBA rules
- UEBA scoring helps reduce false positives by enabling security teams to triage incidents according to severity
- Easy to deploy and manage with out-of-the-box configurations and an intuitive UI
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Exabeam Fusion SIEM is available via contacting their sales team. The platform is priced based on the number of users and entities monitored, and is available on a term-based license.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend Exabeam Fusion SIEM as a strong solution for larger enterprises looking for powerful behavior analytics to detect and remediate insider threats. Its modular delivery also makes Fusion SIEM suitable for companies looking to deploy individual modules to augment their existing SIEM solution with specific features.
IBM Security is a trusted provider of market-leading cybersecurity technologies for a range of use cases, including IT infrastructure and management, analytics, and software development. QRadar SIEM is IBM’s SIEM solution. Available on-premises and as a cloud-hosted solution, QRadar SIEM features in-depth analytics of logs, flows, and events, and generates actionable insights to inform security teams’ threat investigation and response processes.
IBM Security QRadar SIEM Features:
- Out-of-the-box integrations with 450 other third-party technologies, IBM solutions and open-source threat intelligence feeds make it easy for security teams to identify threats via one central interface
- Granular configuration options for automatic event data analysis and alert prioritization
- Actionable insights based on security event data inform and improve threat investigation processes to minimize mean time to respond
Pricing And Plans: The overall cost of QRadar SIEM is dependent on the deployment model (SaaS or on-prem software) and add-ons, and is based on the number of servers, and number of users or workstations in your environment. Plans start from $1,270, and you can estimate your pricing using the tool on IBM’s website.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend QRadar SIEM for mid-size to large organizations looking for a SIEM that will integrate easily with their existing infrastructure to provide a holistic, accurate view of their attack surface.
LogPoint is a European cybersecurity company that focuses on helping organizations convert their data into actionable intelligence. LogPoint SIEM is their flagship SIEM solution. The platform offers integrated user and event behavior analytics (UEBA) to accurately detect anomalous activities and offer risk-based threat prioritization, as well as built-in security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) functionality to reduce incident response times.
LogPoint SIEM Features:
- Visualizes all event data and maps security events to MITRE to help security teams more efficiently prioritize alerts and incident responses
- Integrated SOAR functionality automates menial tasks and certain incident response processes using out-of-the-box integrations and playbooks
- Integrated UEBA analyzes user and entity behaviors to identify malicious activity based on deviation from a baseline of “normal” behavior
- Customer-focused, LogPoint offers strong technical support and updates their solutions in response to customer feedback (e.g., adding SOAR capabilities)
- Flexible SaaS, cloud, and on-prem deployment options, with multi-instance deployments for MSPs and organizations whose “parent” headquarters support multiple “child” business areas
Pricing And Plans: Pricing is available on request via Logpoint’s website, and licensing is based on the number of connected devices.
Expert Insights’ Comments: LogPoint is a strong solution for any sized organization—including those with smaller security teams—looking for an easy-to-manage SIEM with lots of out-of-the-box functionality. We also recommend it to those looking for powerful SOAR capabilities to automate incident response and reduce alert fatigue. The platform’s native multi-tenant support and multi-instance deployment option also make it suitable for MSPs.
LogRhythm is a cybersecurity provider that specializes in threat intelligence, security analytics, log management and network monitoring. LogRhythm’s NextGen SIEM platform offers machine learning-based behavior analytics, network detection and response, and SOAR capabilities via a single, central platform to help organizations gain a more holistic view of their attack surface and rapidly detect and remediate security threats.
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform Features:
- Granular levels of customization available across the entire platform
- Configure the sources for any log to ensure the accurate capture of all event data
- Configure alerts and create custom reporting templates to enable maximum visibility, reduce alert fatigue, and ensure compliance
- Real-time analysis of events and logs and compatibility with a wide variety of log sources
- Deploys on-prem, in IaaS, or through an MSP; LogRhythm also offers a cloud-hosted SIEM—LogRhythm Cloud—for organizations that want the flexibility of a SaaS solution
Pricing And Plans: Pricing is available from the LogRhythm sales team upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend LogRhythm’s NextGen SIEM Platform to mid- to large-sized organizations looking to deploy a SIEM on-premises or in an Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, and those looking for highly flexible customization options to tailor the SIEM to their specific environment. LogRhythm has a wide channel of MSP partners, so the solution is also suitable for organizations that would like to invest in a SIEM as a managed service.
Rapid7 is a cybersecurity company that specializes in solutions to improve security through visibility, analytics, and automation. InsightIDR is Rapid7’s combined SIEM and XDR platform, delivered via the Rapid7 Insight platform alongside the vendor’s threat intelligence, orchestration and automation, vulnerability management, application, and cloud security tools, as well as their managed services. InsightIDR customers that choose to invest in any of the other Insight solutions can access all features via one platform.
Rapid7 InsightIDR Features:
- The user-friendly interface makes it easy for security teams to access threat intelligence to inform their incident response processes
- In-built detection and response tools help streamline response workflows to remediate threats more efficiently
- Accessible threat forensics help security teams quickly respond, as well as take steps to prevent repeat incidents
- A range of out-of-the-box configurations makes it easy to deploy, but admins can adapt these to fit their environment as needed
Pricing And Plans: Deployed as-a-Service, InsightIDR is available via three tiered packages on a termly license, and pricing is based on the number of assets being monitored. InsightIDR Essential is available from $3.82/asset/month; InsightIDRAdvanced is available from $6.36/asset/month; InsightIDR Ultimate is available from $8.21/asset/month (based on 250k assets).
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend InsightIDR for small- to mid-sized organizations looking for a cloud-hosted SIEM, and particularly those with fewer security resources and may benefit from the managed detection and response (MDR) and orchestration and response add-ons offered by Rapid7.
Securonix is a security analytics and operation management provider that helps organizations better understand and utilize their big data to remediate cyberthreats. The Next-Gen SIEM is Securonix’s cloud-native SIEMs solution. The platform enables security teams to detect and analyze threats using machine learning-based behavioral analytics, threat chain analytics, and user risk scoring, as well as efficiently respond to threats with integrated SOAR functionality and automated response playbooks.
Securonix Next-Gen SIEM Features:
- Out-of-the-box integrations with third-party threat intelligence platforms, Securonix’s own native threat intelligence platform, helps security teams to turn event data into useful, actionable intelligence
- Risk scoring of all users and entities helps teams to prioritize their incident response actions
- Threat models map alerts to the MITRE ATT&CK and US-CERT frameworks to help reduce alert volume
- Modular architecture enables flexible deployment options
Pricing And Plans: Securonix’s solution is available to deploy on-prem or as-a-Service. Pricing is available through contact with their sales team, and Securonix offers perpetual licenses as well as term licenses.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend the Securonix Next-Gen SIEM primarily to mid-size and larger organizations that have security resource they can dedicate to the deployment and ongoing management of the solution. However, smaller customers can also leverage Securonix’s SIEM if they opt to buy via an MSP that will help them manage it.
Splunk is a software provider that provides tools to help organizations collect, monitor, search, and analyze their data. Splunk Enterprise Security is their cloud SIEM designed to make it easier for security teams to investigate malicious activity across their environments, thus reducing the time it takes to respond to threats.
Splunk Enterprise Security Features:
- User-friendly web interface provides a holistic view of any organization’s entire environment
- Wide range of integrations with third-party tools, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure
- Reliable threat detection capabilities with mapping to frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK, NIST, CIS 20, and Kill Chain
- Risk-based alerting attributes risks to users and systems and triggers alerts only when the risk threshold is reached, to minimize alert fatigue
- Visual risk analysis reports make threat intelligence accessible for non-technical users
- Available on, prem, as-a-Service, and can also be deployed via the Splunk Cloud
Pricing And Plans: Licensing is subscription-based, and tiered pricing options are available based on infrastructure and data ingestion volume to align with different customer use cases.
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend Splunk Enterprise Security as a strong solution for mid- to large-sized organizations looking for a flexible, scalable SIEM with the option to add on UEBA and SOAR functionality. However, organizations in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America looking for a cloud-hosted SIEM may need to check whether the Splunk Cloud supports their location and geographical requirements for data residency.
Sumo Logic is a data analytics company that focuses on collecting and analyzing machine data for security, operations, and business intelligence use cases. They offer event and log management and analytics solutions that help organizations make data-driven decisions. Cloud SIEM is Sumo Logic’s cloud-native SIEM solution designed to identify threats across on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud sources.
Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Features:
- Integrates via API with multiple sources, including security tools such as VMWare Carbon Black, OKTA, AWS GuardDuty, and Microsoft 365, making it easier for security teams to gain a holistic view of their attack surface
- Out-of-the-box rules relate events to the MITRE ATT&CK framework to help security teams triage and prioritize threats
- Free training and certification included, with helpful product documentation
- User-friendly, easy-to-navigate interface makes it easy to identify threats and vulnerabilities
Pricing And Plans: Licensing for Sumo Logic’s Cloud SIEM is tiered and either subscription-based, with pricing based on data ingestion volume, or credit-based. The SIEM is available via the Enterprise Security and Enterprise Suite versions of SumoLogic’s wider platform.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Because of its flexible packing and pricing options, we recommend Sumo Logic as a strong cloud-based SIEM for organizations of all sizes looking to improve their threat detection and streamline their incident response processes.
In 2021, the Sympnohy Technology Group acquired McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, and merged the two trusted cybersecurity brands under a new name: Trellix. Trellix is a provider of powerful threat detection and response solutions powered by artificial intelligence and automation. Trellix Helix, formerly FireEye Helix, is Trellix’s unified security operations and platform that combines SIEM, SOAR and UEBA to give organizations complete control over their threat data, accelerate incident response, and prevent repeat attacks based on intelligent forensics.
Trellix Helix Features:
- Collates threat data from over 650 different data sources, thanks to its simple plug-and-play integration with other tools in the security ecosystem
- Applies analytics to threat data to identify and triage genuine threats
- Applies machine learning to identify anomalies in user behavior, which could indicate potential threats
- Alerts admins to malicious activity so they can choose to utilize the platform’s guided investigation tools, or automate response using pre-built playbooks
- Central management dashboard from which admins can easily search aggregated data and logs, and generate out-of-the-box and custom reports to help visualize their state of security
- Deploys as-a-Service, making it easy to upgrade or add on to the service as your business grows
Pricing And Plans: Helix is available as a standalone solution, and as part of the wider Trellix security suite. Pricing is available upon request from the Trellix sales team; at the time of writing, a 12-month subscription would cost a total of $21,823, or approx. $1,819/month (based on 100 users, pricing from AWS Marketplace).
Expert Insights’ Comments: We recommend Trellix Helix to organizations looking for a SIEM as part of a wider security orchestration and management platform, and particularly those that are already utilizing other products in Trellix’s security stack, such as their extended detection and response (XDR) solution, endpoint security, and email security.
FAQs
What Are The Key Features Of A SIEM Solution?
All modern SIEM solutions should enable security teams to detect and investigate threats, as well as automate incident response processes. But there are other features that you should look for in a SIEM solution, depending on your use case. These include:
- Visualization of threat intelligence and event data, to enable you to understand your attack surface more easily
- Incident triaging, to help you prioritize which incidents require attention most urgently
- Advanced machine learning-based analytics that identifies abnormal behavior across your environment
- Unlimited, quick log collection
- Data normalization, to make it easier for you to understand and compare data from different sources
- Threat response workflow automation, which enables you to automate menial tasks and focus on remediation
Should I Invest In A Cloud SIEM Solution Or An On-Prem SIEM Solution?
Many SIEM providers offer both on-premises and cloud deployment options, and it can be difficult to know which one to go with. There are a few areas to consider when making this decision:
- Deployment: It can be more difficult to deploy an on-premises solution, as it’s likely to take more time to integrate with your existing architecture. A cloud SIEM solution is quicker and easier to deploy, and the provider will often help you manage the deployment and ongoing maintenance of the platform.
- Control: On-premises SIEM solutions enable organizations to have full control over their own data. Cloud SIEM solutions, however, involve your company’s data being stored on the provider’s servers; this may be in their own cloud or in a public cloud. Some organizations are required by compliance regulations to keep a record of any data they store in the cloud, which can be time-consuming and may mean that an on-prem deployment is the better option.
- Scalability: On-premises solutions are often cheaper to deploy initially, but it can be difficult to upgrade them if your business grows or starts processing more data than you originally budgeted for. Cloud solutions are much easier to scale because they’re usually delivered on a subscription-based license and enable you to add or remove features as needed, with immediate effect.
- Accessibility: Cloud SIEM solutions are much easier for remote and hybrid teams to access than on-premises ones, as security teams can sign in to and manage the SIEM securely from anywhere, at any time.
- Updates: Organizations that invest in an on-premises SIEM solution are responsible for updating that solution themselves. Administering these updates can often be time-consuming and require you to pause log collection, resulting in down-time. Those that invest in cloud SIEM solutions needn’t worry about this, as updates are usually managed by the provider.
Generally, if your business isn’t restricted by compliance and privacy requirements that require you to have certain controls over your data, we recommend that you invest in a cloud SIEM solution. But ultimately, you need to evaluate which of the above points are most important to your organization, and make your decision based on those factors.
What Are Some Of The Challenges Of Using A SIEM?
The main challenge when it comes to using a SIEM solution is navigating false alerts and reducing alert fatigue—the action of becoming desensitized to alerts because you’re constantly overwhelmed with false positives.
To overcome this, you should look for a SIEM that gives you contextual information on each incident, enables you to configure custom log and alert rules to help reduce false positives, and assigns risk scores to each incident or offers triaging to help you prioritize your responses.
