S.W.A.T. Defence® – Your Next-generation Managed SIEM Solution

Security Information and Event Management, or SIEM, is increasingly becoming a fundamental element to businesses’ information security. A SIEM is intended to protect environments by taking log data from various sources and identifying suspicious activity. If an issue is spotted, such as scanning activity from a region not associated with the business, this can be raised as an alert and appropriate action taken.

At its simplest, SIEM works via a programmed set of rules. Events can be raised depending on what is considered as ‘normal’ behaviour within a certain business. For example, a multinational retailer will regularly communicate with devices in multiple regions, whereas it’s unlikely that local Government would.

An effective SIEM must be programmed to recognise these different behaviours and raise alerts accordingly.

SIEM has evolved over the years from simple log monitoring to include a much more well-rounded feature set, which increases the challenge when managing a SIEM procurement process.

Bulletproof’s S.W.A.T. Defence® is our outsourced managed SIEM service, where proactive threat hunting by dedicated security analysts keep your staff, applications, systems and network secure 24/7. We believe human expertise, insight and ingenuity are fundamental to keeping ahead of the modern dynamic threat landscape. That’s why Bulletproof puts experienced security analysts at the core of this service.

By escalating outcomes and actions, not floods of alerts, S.W.A.T. Defence® delivers credible security improvements to your organisation. Combining this ethos with our world-leading suite of SIEM tools and ‘as a Service’ delivery model makes S.W.A.T. Defence® a powerful solution to today’s security challenges.

Thanks to our continuously updated SaaS platform, you’re always protected against the latest cyber vulnerabilities and exploits. SaaS delivery also means S.W.A.T. Defence® offers extremely rapid set-up and on-boarding, with a 10-minute deployment process. This approach also enables native integration with public cloud (Azure, AWS, Google), container and serverless deployments, as well as traditional on premises infrastructure.

There are three approaches to incorporating a SIEM into a business: build, buy or outsource. What option is right for you will very much depend on the size and nature of your business, as well as your security objectives. There are benefits and drawbacks to each option and it’s important to remember that, even within each, no two SIEMs are the same.

Outsourcing your SIEM requirements is often seen as the most balanced option. Having a third-party manage your monitoring responsibilities can be a robust and affordable approach to security. As with buying, services will differ from vendor to vendor, but the benefits of outsourcing remain consistent.

Benefits:

• Affordable retainer-based service with no large upfront fees
• Access to experienced staff all year round
• Deployment and reconfigurations managed by a trusted third party
• No hardware appliances or support contracts to manage
• Access to a wider variety of threat intelligence
• Proactive threat hunting
• Immediate access to updates as and when they’re produced – often at no extra cost
• Native integration with cloud and other modern infrastructures

Drawbacks:

• You are one of many customers
• Action is reliant on effective communication
• Limited reconfiguration options you can undertake yourself
• Lack of control over software platform

The outsourced model is gaining significant traction in the industry thanks to its affordability and comprehensive suite of value-added services. Combatting the drawbacks of outsourcing can be achieved by selecting the right partner. Carefully evaluate your shortlist of vendors, as you’ll be entirely reliant on them for effective escalation and on-going tuning of the services. Select the vendor that provides you with the most confidence that they can be a trusted security provider for your organisation.