One security manager's key questions for choosing a security information and event management product Mike Mahoney, manager of IT security and compliance at Liz Claiborne Inc., used the following evaluation criteria when choosing a SIEM product, eventually deciding on Q1 Labs’ QRadar. He asked several teams within the organization to rank these criteria in terms of their importance to getting their jobs done, both for statistical work (trending, historical, matrices and reporting) and for correlation (normalization and analyzing).Threat identification: Raw log form vs. descriptive.Threat tracking: Ability to track through the various events, from source to destination.Policy enforcement: Ability to enforce defined polices.Application analysis: Ability to analyze application at Layer 7 if necessary.Business relevance of events: Ability to assign business risk to events and have weighted threat levels.Measuring changes and improvements: Ability to track configuration changes to devices.Asset-based information: Ability to gather information on devices on the network.Anomalous behavior (server): Ability to trend and see changes in how it communicates to others.Anomalous behavior (network): Ability to trend and see how communications pass throughout the network.Anomalous behavior (application): Ability to trend and see changes in how it communicates to others.User monitoring: User activity, logging in, applications usage, etc.Mahoney also asked the teams to respond to the following questions:What devices would be candidates for log and event collection?What policies would you like to track?What information would you like to have available if a threat or vulnerability was identified?What sort of devices and information would be valuable for your area, in terms of asset collection?What length of time for access to current/archival information is acceptable?More on SIEM:What is SIEM software? How it works and how to choose the right toolArcSight vs. Splunk? Why you might want bothEvaluation criteria for SIEMSIEM: 14 questions to ask before you buyLog management basicsSIEMs-as-a-service addresses needs of small, midsize enterprises Related content news UK government plans 2,500 new tech recruits by 2025 with focus on cybersecurity New apprenticeships and talent programmes will support recruitment for in-demand roles such as cybersecurity technologists and software developers By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Education Industry Education Industry Education Industry news UK data regulator orders end to spreadsheet FOI requests after serious data breaches The Information Commissioner’s Office says alternative approaches should be used to publish freedom of information data to mitigate risks to personal information By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 3 mins Government Cybercrime Data and Information Security feature Cybersecurity startups to watch for in 2023 These startups are jumping in where most established security vendors have yet to go. By CSO Staff Sep 29, 2023 19 mins CSO and CISO Security news analysis Companies are already feeling the pressure from upcoming US SEC cyber rules New Securities and Exchange Commission cyber incident reporting rules don't kick in until December, but experts say they highlight the need for greater collaboration between CISOs and the C-suite By Cynthia Brumfield Sep 28, 2023 6 mins Regulation Data Breach Financial Services Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe