Getting caught in a bad situation is a terrible thing, made even worse when you are unprepared. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is the solution that can help you through a bad situation when it comes to cybersecurity.
It isn’t enough to just bandage the situation with the latest software solution. Your organization must train to a certain level of security awareness and capability.
This article will discuss the nature of security information and events management (SIEM) solutions. We will also explore incident management training, how to prepare, who needs it, and how it will benefit your organization.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
The SIEM solution is the security team’s best friend. Typically, it is a software solution that logs suspected security events on one dashboard that is easy to see.
SIEM is a combination of Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Events Management (SEM). The larger cyber community realized that more complex business information systems would require a solution to track data flow and suspicious events.
The SIEM point is to track anomalous activities and events on a specific information system and then flag them so that the security team can take the necessary action.
The SIEM is not a fix-all solution to your everyday security needs. SIEM’s can return false positives, which is why a dedicated team is needed to analyze the events and decide whether you should take action.
But when calibrated correctly, they can act as an excellent early warning system for:
- DDoS attacks
- Worm propagation
- Virus detection and removal
The calibrations come from setting up “rule sets” that will trigger a warning after “x” has happened. For example, a rule set could state:
“Repeated login attempts” will trigger an event warning, which will then take action by “locking access to the account for 30 minutes”.
Remember that the SIEM is only a tool and should be used as such. Your organization should be focusing on a proactive approach to security incident management; we will discuss this a little further in the article.
Security Incident Management Training
When using SIEM solutions as your tool to prevent and mitigate unwanted cybersecurity events, security incident management training is the vital preparation needed to ensure the smooth execution of your incident management plan.
Incident management training is the process that ensures the right staff and personnel are ready and on top of their game when a security incident occurs.
Typically, you will be keeping up to date on industry-specific threats and vulnerabilities, maintaining a general security awareness level within the organization, and distributing roles and responsibilities to the different organizational departments.
You will also need to have a program in place to train any new hires in the processes and procedures relating to your company’s security policy.
All this sounds great, but unfortunately, even if companies do these steps, they may still be victims of a security breach and are left wondering why?
Some organizations will do the ceremonial security policy dance as a process. The practice of superficial adherence to organizational requirements is referred to as reactive management, otherwise known as the bare minimum. The “awareness” around cybersecurity issues within the organization is just for show. This superficial training will leave the company wholly unprepared when an incident does occur, leading to an increased negative impact overall.
Regulations such as CCPA, GDPR, and the CMMC shift the paradigm away from the reactive management attitude toward a more sophisticated proactive approach. Compliance done right puts an organization ahead of its competition through well thought out systems and strategies.
Your organization should be focusing on proactive training, incident management, and security.
Knowing the difference between reactive and proactive training will put you a cut above the rest.
Let’s discuss.
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The Makings of a Proactive Security Incident Management Training Program
Like all good dishes, there is a great chef behind the scene, but that chef had a recipe for success, and you should have one too.
Proactive security incident management training is your key to organizational success. Being proactive in your security training and awareness will help ensure your organization’s stability, especially in a digital age where the likelihood of a cyber-attack is no longer in doubt.
A proactive Security Incident Management training program will leverage the tools at its disposal to achieve the desired outcome. Use the SIEM solutions employed by your organization to understand your security environment, which will feed into the “ingredients” of proactive management. These are:
- Understanding who the security incident management is for
- The Incidents Response Plan (IRP)
- Pen-testing
- Security Operations Center (SOC) and active analysis
- The organizational risk management framework
- Threat and Vulnerability scanning
Let’s explore each in more detail.
Who is it for?
When developing a new product or service, one of the very first questions to ask should be, “Who will be using this?”. At least, that’s what any good market researcher will tell you to do.If you don’t understand the end user’s needs, it will be impossible to create anything fit for purpose, whether product or service, that will deliver the desired results.
Training programs and security incident management are no different; they must be tailored to the end-users’ needs while optimizing the desired organizational outcomes. It is not realistic to expect everyone in your organization to be adequately prepared to help during a disaster; some may just be victims of the crime. Others may not have the technical or organizational abilities to assist with the problem.
Not every member of your organization needs training to the top security incident response level, but it is essential to get the right people ready. Now might be an excellent time to ask, “who needs this?” Who are the personnel whose efficient and timely response to any cybersecurity incident will be vital to the successful mitigation and defense of the company’s digital infrastructure?
Generally speaking, your organization’s size, will dictate the key players that should be up to date and ready at all times, and these are:
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- C-Suite and decision-makers: each should have their role to play and their responsibilities to carry out.
- CISO’s, CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, etc.
- IT specialists and developers: if you have a team of developers or an IT department that takes care of the information systems operation, they should always be kept up to date on the current and developing security risks.
- Key business stakeholders, partners, and third-party networks: in a digital age of cloud providers and software-as-a-service (SAAS), many organizations have extensive third-party networks and stakeholders that could be affected by, or the causes of, a security breach.
- Security Teams and Partners: if you have an in-house security team or partner, it is of paramount importance that communication channels are open through regular discussions between relevant departments and across silos.
- C-Suite and decision-makers: each should have their role to play and their responsibilities to carry out.
The IRP
No incident management training program will be complete without an Incident Response Plan (IRP). The IRP forms the backbone of any cybersecurity risk management framework. While the framework will outline perceived vulnerabilities, potential threats, and the likelihood of occurrence, the IRP will guide the organization’s actions during a security event.
Constructing and designing an IRP is usually left to security professionals, but we challenge your organization to be involved in the process. Understanding how to react to security situations will help you avoid them entirely.
The IRP’s role is to analyze all possible attack avenues and develop the processes to recover from those attacks. These IRPs can significantly increase the incident management training awareness of your decision-makers, c-suite, and critical stakeholders.
The security state of mind should be innate at all levels of the organization, and the IRP is a way to shape that mindset.
If you want to learn more about incident response planning, check out these posts on our blog.
Penetration Testing
Having a plan in place, coupled with better education of your organization’s top-level management, is a great way to develop preparedness. But why only be prepared when your organization can become resilient?
With penetration testing, your organization will not only survive the ravages of a cyberattack, but it will be more likely to thrive in the digital ecosystem. As part of the security incident management training package, your organization should be testing the information system’s overall security posture.
Penetration testing is a way to simulate a cyberattack on your organization in a safe and controlled environment. It’s a great way to put into practice your incident management training.
There are different types of tests you can carry out within the discipline of pen-testing. Regarding the incident security management training, it would be best to employ a blind pen-test to check how well the IRP is executed.
It will keep your team and the SIEM system on their toes. Penetration testing is a vital aspect of proactive management.
Learn more about penetration testing right here on our blog.
Security Operation Center and Active Analysis
As part of the proactive management of security within the organization, it is beneficial to have a dedicated security partner. The Security Operations Centers (SOC) are services that offer an analysis of SIEM systems and give your organization a transparent audit of all logged information allowing you to act quickly and decisively.
As mentioned at the start of this article, SIEM systems work best when analyzed because they can sometimes return false positives. The active management of SIEM data will feed into the incident management training, which keeps your team sharp by remaining ahead of the data.
Logging and auditing is a great way to hone the training program. These logs will inform your organization of technical shortcomings and vulnerabilities.
Building Incident Management into the Organizational Risk Framework
The best way to keep a proactive stance in incident security management is to build it into your overall organizational risk management framework. The goal here is to normalize the procedure on a corporate scale.
Most managers and management will be familiar with the company’s risk framework. By including the cyber risks, you will preemptively have information that will become more vital in the coming years.
Benefits of Proactive Security Incident Management Training
Proactive security incident management is key to future business success and to present organizational resilience.
Employing this method will produce massive reductions in cyber risk. It’s important to note that you can not completely eliminate your cyber threats, unfortunately. Still, proactive management will do much more for the organization’s ongoing cybersecurity position than a reactionary stance.
With these reductions to risks and vulnerabilities, you can feel more comfortable streamlining business processes, reducing operational and resource costs.
It will also sharpen the problem-solving skills of your staff. By building a culture of proactive security management, your organization will have the ability to overcome security incidents and transfer those skills to other strategic endeavors.
Finally, being proactive will keep you one step ahead of your competitors and any bad actors. The idea here is that you will far out scale any competitor’s information system using these techniques and methods. And cyberattackers prefer to crack easier targets, so making it difficult for them through proactive means will have them turning to the low-hanging fruit of your poorly prepared, reactive-stance competitors.
How RSI Security Can Help You
The increasingly complex information system and complex business environments can leave many organizations woefully unprepared when a security event hits them.
You don’t have to feel paralyzed by fears, uncertainty, and doubts. Taking just a little time to think about future possibilities and risk mitigation can save you many headaches.
But you don’t have to travel that road alone. RSI Security is here for you. With years of experience in cyber risk management, incidence response planning, and security information and event management, we are a suitable partner for you.
Don’t hesitate to leverage our wealth of knowledge; do contact us today and schedule a consultation.