Is your SIEM security solution no longer enough? The imperative of increasing your security posture and optimizing costs in 2023  

Cyberattacks continue to evolve, and you should expect the same from your MDR provider.   

Cybercriminals still go after large organizations or government agencies because they have large amounts of data to steal, but that doesn’t mean small and medium-sized businesses are safe (especially in a post-COVID world with an increase in remote work and digital channels). They are also being targeted because they often have weaker security measures in place, leading to increased phishing attacks, malware and other cyber threats targeting remote workers and vulnerable systems. No matter where they strike, though, cybercriminals are avoiding getting caught because their advanced, sophisticated tactics are designed to evade traditional security measures.   

While a robust security infrastructure is essential, more is needed. Organizations (and their security service providers) must take a proactive approach to threat detection and response to stay ahead of potential attacks and continuously mature their security posture.  

Getting the best MDR service per dollar invested 

This is why customers are expecting more from their Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, including it being comprehensive of technical capabilities, multiple attack surface data sources, including Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), incident response, threat hunting, threat investigation, mapping threat detections to the MITRE ATT&CK® Framework and consulting services.  

And while MDR and SIEM are two different (but related) areas in cybersecurity (MDR service providers specialize in detecting and responding to security incidents, while SIEM service providers focus on collecting, analyzing, and correlating security data to detect potential threats), SIEMs are increasingly performing the double duty of compliance and security monitoring. Their use for security purposes is why an effective MDR solution for SIEM is critical to an organization’s security infrastructure.  

However, SIEMs can generate an overwhelming number of alerts, many of which are false positives. Without proper management, it can be challenging for organizations to achieve effective threat detection and response, leaving them vulnerable to genuine threats.  

A SIEM security solution solves these challenges by combining the foundational component of managed SIEM with the monitoring power of an MDR solution to provide effective threat detection and resolution. Organizations leveraging a SIEM security solution get the expertise, technology and processes needed to manage their SIEM effectively, reducing the risk of missed threats and minimizing the time to respond to incidents.  

If you are wondering if your current MDR service provider can continue to scale and mature alongside your growing business and the ever-evolving threat landscape, read on to learn the 10 ways an effective MDR provider can help keep your business safe from cyberattacks:  

1. The expertise to maximize SIEM efficiency, including tuning and optimization  

A SIEM is contextual, meaning that the quality of security alerts you get out of it depends on the quality you put into it, making it imperative to work with security experts who understand your environment to ensure you are ingesting the right logs and achieving the best outcomes for your business needs. Look for a service provider that can offer comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, including deployment, maintenance, optimization, tuning and licensing support, threat detection and response.   

2. Advanced, 24/7/365 threat detection, incident response and remediation capabilities   

24/7/365 threat detection and response services (including the ability to detect and respond to advanced, persistent and insider threats) are commonplace nowadays. It’s worth digging deeper to find out if the provider also tailors their rules of engagement to your unique business needs, guarantees a 1-hour or less time to detect (TTD) and median time to resolve (MTTR) SLA for every alert and uses a two-person integrity review on every action to be taken to minimize their impact on your organization.   

3. Real-time event correlation and analysis  

If you want to detect and respond to security threats quickly, you need to be alerted to suspicious events in real time. This means it is essential to have the ability to analyze logs as they happen and correlates events across multiple data sources.  

4. Incident response workflows and automation  

An MDR for SIEM solution with incident response workflow and automation capabilities can help streamline security operations and enable rapid response to security incidents. And while this means that they can automatically respond to threats without human intervention (helping to reduce response times), check that human review is still available to ensure the highest integrity responses.   

5. Proactive threat hunting  

Effective threat detection and response don’t mean only being reactive when threats come to you. Actively searching for potential threats and vulnerabilities, even if there are no current indicators of compromise, can anticipate and identify potential threats before they can cause significant damage to your organization. This requires a combination of automated and manual threat-hunting techniques, including analyzing threat intelligence feeds and using advanced analytics tools by a team of experts with deep threat intelligence and experience.   

6. Security certifications and compliance with industry regulations   

An MDR service that outsources its back-end threat detection and response often relies on third-party certifications (meaning the MDR service is not certified, but the solution they use is). Not having the necessary processes and procedures in place to ensure that their customers’ data is protected and secure can create unnecessary security gaps, so why take the chance? Find out if your service provider holds accreditations like PCI-DSS and SOC 2 Type II, in addition to complying with industry regulations.   

7. Threat intelligence integration  

A SIEM security solution that supports multi-vendor integration can work seamlessly with other security solutions, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems and antivirus software. Integrating with a variety of threat intelligence feeds can provide additional context around security events and help detect and respond to advanced threats more effectively.   

8. Risk reduction and alert mapping  

You are enhancing your detection coverage and compliance posture when you map your threat detection content and Open/Closed alerts to the MITRE ATT&CK® Framework for risk management and reduction. When you add to that a prioritization model based on what has been observed across other customers, you are holistically improving your security and accelerating your return on investment (ROI).   

9. SOC access for the whole team—any time and from anywhere  

You know you can rely on the expert SOC analysts from your provider for Tier 1 and Tier 2 support and more, but does everyone on your team have access to SOC analysts 24/7/365, no matter where they are? If not, this could create a bottleneck that is hindering your organization from promptly detecting and addressing potential threats. With the addition of a mobile SOC app, you and your team will have complete visibility and accountability so you can respond, resolve and even contact the SOC anytime and from anywhere.  

10. Continuous improvement and optimization in tandem with scalability and flexibility  

Finally, your service provider should regularly review their processes and procedures to identify areas for improvement and implement changes accordingly. Look for solutions that provide customizable dashboards and reports with provable metrics, peer benchmarking and more, providing visibility into security posture and identifying areas for improvement, ensuring your service provider can scale to meet the needs of your organization as it grows and evolves. 

Everyone agrees cyberattacks continue to pose a significant risk to organizations of all sizes, including small and medium-sized businesses with weaker security measures in place and that have gone digital. In response, every organization must take a proactive approach to threat detection and response to stay ahead of potential attacks and continuously mature its security posture.  

SIEM security solutions have become critical to an organization’s security infrastructure. Organizations can achieve effective threat detection and resolution by combining the foundational component of managed SIEM with the monitoring power of an MDR solution.  

Overall, the MDR for SIEM service provider you choose should offer a comprehensive set of features, services and capabilities that enable them to provide you with the highest level of protection against cybersecurity threats, including ingesting the right logs and achieving the best outcomes for your business needs. When you partner with an effective MDR for SIEM solution, your business can stay ahead of potential threats, minimize the impact of cyberattacks and stay resilient in the face of an ever-evolving threat landscape.