Silencing the Bells: How a SIEM Can Prevent Alert Fatigue

Security teams are perpetually busy protecting their organization’s data, so with the incessant pings of relentless security notifications, it’s no wonder that they feel as though their ears are ringing. As organizations grow and add more and more tools, the danger of alert fatigue grows. With hundreds of alerts pouring in, it’s difficult to discern which ones truly need attention. Worrisome vulnerabilities and dangerous malware can easily slip through the cracks, even though a security team was technically warned of the threat.

Even though alerts can be prioritized, this has done little to help in recent years. According to analyst firm EMA’s Security Megatrend Report, 95% of alerts are classified as critical. So how can security teams get some much needed quiet? Read on to find out how Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions can streamline security and prevent alert fatigue.

Centralized Management to Reduce Console Fatigue

Part of the issue with alerting is the amount of places from which alerts originate. Organizations regularly add more tools, making IT environments increasingly complex. Security teams are perpetually going back and forth between screens, attempting to monitor as much as they can, as fast as they can.

A SIEM can consolidate any number of data streams, becoming your organization’s primary security monitoring tool. Some SIEM tools, like Event Manager, even allow for integration of unique or unusual data sources, like a homegrown database or third party applications. Additionally, they’ll also be able to discern new insights from a centralized spot where they can complete analysis with the added context of seeing security data pulled from a variety of systems.

Tailor Alerts to Your Organization’s Needs

A SIEM allows for much more nuance to be built into the security alert process. Each organization is different, and SIEM solutions are designed to be as adaptable as an organization requires. Below is a list of things to keep in mind when considering or deploying a SIEM solution to ensure you’re only getting the notifications you need.

Take context into account.

While set up may be quicker if you have the same alerts for each new asset, this doesn’t accurately reflect each asset’s role and function within the wider context of the environment. Invest the time up front to think through what’s most critical for the environment overall, as well as each individual device, and adjust the settings and defaults accordingly.

A SIEM solution like Event Manager allows you to easily create dashboards, altering display details and event classifications for each device. That way, if you know an action may indicate a threat on one device, where it may only be worth noting as an event on another. This allows for reduced notifications, and proper prioritization so that events that are escalated to alerts truly deserve to be marked critical.

Limit who is notified.

Without a SIEM, many times the capabilities are limited to sending out every single alert to every single admin. But it’s rare that everyone truly needs to be notified for every single event. A SIEM allows you to have different people alerted depending on the type of events or affected operating systems. This reduces redundancies and prevents an excess of alerts from building up over time as more systems are connected.

Revisit and readjust.

As you adjust to a SIEM solution, and as your organization changes, you can always make changes. If you get an alert that isn’t of significance after your initial configuration, effective SIEM software will allow you to quickly fine-tune the settings to lower the priority or filter it out for next time

An alert that you once needed may no longer be as useful. An event that is classified as a highlight may need to be upgraded to a threat. Take advantage of the flexibility of your SIEM so that you are never wasting time since there is never a lack of things to do for security teams. Maximizing the capabilities of each and every security tool at their disposal frees security teams and further ensures security against every type of threat.

Event Manager was developed with just these considerations in mind. Dashboards are powerful yet adaptable, with easy toggling and filtering so that you can quickly get to the most critical information. Event Manager also remains flexible, allowing for changes to be made on the fly. If an alert occurs that isn’t of significance after initial configuration, you can immediately modify the settings to filter it out. With centralized management, simple adjustments, and limitless integration possibilities, Event Manager can not only alleviate alert fatigue, it can also alleviate other headaches by streamlining your security.