Attackers work tirelessly day in and day out to exploit businesses of all sizes. The Verizon 2019 report shows that small businesses are the number one target, representing 43 percent of all data breaches. How can small businesses protect themselves? By using security information and event management (SIEM).
What Is SIEM, and Why Do Small Businesses Need It?
SIEM, pronounced “sim,” is a technology solution that collects data in the form of logs, events, and artifacts from various endpoints or network devices, applications, and servers in the organization and stores them in a centralized location. The essence of storing the data in a centralized location is to analyze and provide insights against security threats, detect anomalies, respond to incidents quickly, and ensure compliance with industry regulations. While SIEM systems were once tools for large enterprises, technological advancements have made them accessible to smaller organizations. Cloud-based solutions have further increased their benefits for small businesses. SIEM for small businesses provides the visibility small businesses need to monitor their entire infrastructure and network. This helps them detect threats, ensure regulatory compliance, centrally manage their security logs, and respond to incidents quickly and efficiently.
Key Features to Look for in a SIEM Solution
- User-friendly interface: Make sure you can thoroughly navigate the interface. Even if a SIEM has advanced capabilities for detecting threats, if the interface is complex to navigate, it’s not a good choice.
- Scalability: A business’s infrastructure may be limited in its early stages, so another key factor is scalability, which you’ll need as the business grows.
- Threat intelligence integration: You’ll need a threat intelligence system that uses artificial intelligence to detect threats with few false negative and false positive alerts.
- Customizable alerts: Not all businesses have the same priorities, so look for an SIEM that allows you to set your own security priorities. For example, businesses handling sensitive customer information may prioritize data breaches, while others may focus on malware attacks.
- Automated response capabilities: Small businesses may not have the resources for a dedicated security team, so look for a SIEM that can mitigate threats in real-time without manual intervention.
How SIEM Benefits Small Business Security
- Improved threat detection and response: SIEMs consolidate event log data from various organizations’ network infrastructures. This consolidation helps streamline security analysis, which in turn helps SIEMs provide improved threat detection for small businesses across their entire infrastructure. It also helps yield quick insights into potential threats before they create chaos.
- Enhanced compliance: Some small businesses must comply with regulatory standards, and SIEMs make it easier to produce audit reports.
- Reduced manual intervention: Small businesses may often lack dedicated security teams. SIEMs rely on artificial intelligence to relieve the burden of manually detecting threats and incident responses so that small businesses can focus on other matters.
SIEM for Small Businesses: Challenges
- Budget constraints: One of the biggest challenges for small businesses is the cost of implementing an SIEM solution. This is especially true if the organization plans to develop an on-premises system. To address this issue, small businesses can explore cloud-based SIEM services, which often have lower up-front costs and offer a subscription-based model.
- Limited IT constraints: Many small businesses lack the dedicated IT staff to manage complex security systems. One way to tackle this is to settle for a SIEM solution with threat intelligence features to handle day-to-day security operations.
- Complexity of SIEM solution: Traditional SIEM solutions, i.e., on-premises systems, can be complex to set up and maintain. The solution is for small businesses to choose a user-friendly, cloud-based SIEM with simplified deployment options.
Types of SIEM Solutions and Which Is Suited for Small Business
- On-premises SIEM solutions are usually hosted and managed by businesses themselves. They provide a high level of control and customization, but the up-front investment is high, and they require ongoing maintenance because they monitor security in real-time 24/7.
- Cloud-based SIEMs are hosted by third-party providers, offering easier scalability as the business grows. Additionally, they’re easier to deploy and cost less, eliminating the need for expensive hardware, maintenance costs, etc., allowing the business to pay for only what it uses.
- Hybrid SIEM solutions combine on-premises and cloud infrastructure. They suit organizations with specific regulatory or operational reasons to keep some data on-premises but want to benefit from the cloud’s scalability.
How to Choose the Right SIEM Platform for Your Small Business
Selecting a SIEM platform involves balancing security needs with budget and resource constraints. Here are some of the criteria you’ll need to consider.
1. Assess Your Business Needs
- Size and cost: Consider the size of your business and the scale of your network. Some SIEM platforms are designed for large enterprises, which could be too complex or costly for small businesses.
- Compliance requirements: Determine if your business needs to comply with specific regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS) as some SIEM tools offer specialized features for regulatory compliance.
- Threat landscape: Identify the threats your business will likely face (e.g., phishing, ransomware, insider threats), and ensure the SIEM can handle them.
2. Evaluate Ease of Use and Scalability
- User interface: Small businesses often lack dedicated security teams. Choose an SIEM that’s easy to use with a clean and intuitive dashboard or a tool that can be outsourced to and managed by a security provider.
- Scalability: Choose an SIEM solution that can scale with your business as it grows to avoid major disruptions and costly upgrades.
3. Threat Intelligence and Advanced Analytics and Reporting
- Advanced analytics and reporting: Choose an SIEM that provides advanced solutions for collecting data from various sources and analyzing it for informed and intuitive reporting.
- Real-time monitoring: The SIEM should offer real-time threat detection with actionable alerts and reports. Additionally, the tool must have advanced predictive techniques such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect threats accurately. Also, make sure the SIEM integrates with threat intelligence feeds to provide up-to-date information about known threats.
4. Support and Community
Small businesses may need support when deploying and managing an SIEM. It’s important that the vendor provides 24/7 support. Intuitive documentation is also essential for effective implementation and management. Additionally, the SIEM should have an active community and forum. Other clients might share info about how they use the tools, solutions they’ve built, and issues they’ve tackled.
5. Start with a Free Trial
Many SIEM vendors offer free trials. Use this opportunity to test the SIEM in your environment to see how it handles real-world scenarios. During the trial, monitor the tool’s performance, and ease of use, and generate alerts to ensure you aren’t overloaded with false positives or negatives.
Choose SentinelOne for Small Business
SentinelOne fits all the criteria for choosing the SIEM tool for small businesses thanks to its focus on automation, ease of use, limitless scalability, advanced threat detection capabilities, and low cost. It uses advanced artificial intelligence that continues learning, discovering, and adapting to new threats. Small businesses can detect, investigate, and respond to threats in real-time without extensive manual intervention when using SentinelOne.
Additionally, SentinelOne offers limitless scalability and data retention, so you don’t need to worry about data loss or growing pains. It also supports over twenty-nine compliance frameworks, including CIS, SOC2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc. It integrates with different kinds of sources, has an active community, and provides 24/7 support.
Looking Forward
Malicious actors attempt to exploit companies of all sizes, so SIEM is no longer a luxury reserved for large enterprises. Small businesses can leverage SIEM for small business to protect their entire infrastructure, meet compliance requirements, and protect their digital assets in a cost-effective and scalable manner. By choosing the right solution, like SentinelOne, small businesses can effectively safeguard their operations against an ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. Consider starting with a free trial.
Faqs:
1. Do small businesses need a SIEM?
Small businesses need a SIEM to detect security threats, ensure compliance, and efficiently manage incidents. SIEMs help small businesses protect their data and systems from cyberattacks.
2. Can a small business afford a SIEM solution?
Yes, small businesses can afford SIEM solutions. Modern tools such as SentinelOne offer cost-effective, scalable SIEM solutions for smaller enterprises without requiring a significant investment.
3. How much does the SIEM solution cost per month?
The cost of a SIEM solution depends on the vendor, deployment model, and business scale. On average, cloud-based SIEM services typically range from $1,000 to $5,000 monthly for small- to medium-sized businesses.