Security Information and Event Management
/ˌsiː-ˌaɪ-ˌiː-ˈɛm/
n. “The central nervous system for cybersecurity monitoring.”
SIEM, short for Security Information and Event Management, is a cybersecurity solution that collects, aggregates, analyzes, and correlates log and event data from various sources across an organization’s IT infrastructure. It provides real-time monitoring, alerts, and reporting to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents.
Key characteristics of SIEM include:
- Log Aggregation: Centralizes logs from servers, firewalls, network devices, applications, and endpoints.
- Event Correlation: Analyzes patterns across multiple sources to detect anomalies or potential threats.
- Alerting & Reporting: Sends notifications when suspicious activity is detected and generates compliance reports.
- Incident Investigation: Helps security teams trace events and understand the scope of a security incident.
For example, a SIEM might detect multiple failed login attempts across different servers in a short period, correlate them, and trigger an alert for potential brute-force attacks.
Conceptually, SIEM acts like a security operations hub — continuously monitoring the organization’s digital environment, providing insights, and enabling timely responses to potential cyber threats.