eIQviews

In this final piece on the limitations of today’s SIEM solutions, the last issue is operational suitability.  In a nutshell, because SIEM tools don’t provide enough data (as mentioned earlier, event and vulnerability data are hardly the “complete picture” of security) and don’t provide access to this data quickly enough (due to their performance limitations related to correlation and reporting), their use is much more reactive than proactive in today’s IT environments.  Customers tend to use SIEM technologies for more reactive efforts, such as post-event forensics, rather than as a true correlation solution to determine unusual behavior or policy violations before they have a chance to affect systems and data.  While reactive capabilities are useful, organizations could be using SIEM solutions for much more proactive analysis, such as baselining normal usage patterns, detecting variations over time, and proactively alerting appropriate personnel — if only the technology adequately supported these use cases.  As SIEM point solutions evolve into true enterprise security management platforms, organizations will be more likely to transform their use of these tools into a more proactive capability.