If you’re a regular blog reader, you’ll know we love writing about SIEM, and how it continues to evolve to help organizations stay ahead of the security threat curve. Cybersecurity threat management moves fast, so having the most up-to-date SIEM system in place is critical for maintaining network security.
As we approach the new year, we wanted to look at the forecasted SIEM trends as you prepare your first and second-quarter cybersecurity strategies.
Applications
First, let’s look at the ways SIEM systems will continue to safeguard large distributed network systems with sensitive information by SIEM service market-leading end-use segments.
Banking Financial Services and Insurance
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) regularly prescribes best practices, principles, and standards for financial institutions. Since 2013, the Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure subgroup have continued to streamline security requirements to help industry organizations standardize their security management processes.
In 2023, the world is going to see a lot of changes to regulation in the BFSI sector, so organizations need to start working with the SIEM team to prepare. International banking institutions will certainly need to review their cybersecurity strategies and practices to ensure compliance. We suggest thinking about how AI may be used and secured, how digital assets are protected, and oversight for third-party providers as starting points in this industry.
Higher Education
Higher education institutions are traditionally vulnerable to cyberattacks of all kinds. Whether students are on campus using secured university networks that have extra layers of security or studying from their homes or public spaces with open networks, they are major targets for cybercriminals.
Managed SIEM can help higher education institutions ensure faculty, staff, and students are properly trained in cybersecurity best practices, and provide title IV schools with specific levels of security as required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act). An updated SIEM system in place in 2023 can help higher education institutions pass their GLBA audit.
Public Sector
In the public sector, 2023 will certainly see shifts to more paperless transactions, meaning more sensitive data will be stored either on on-premise servers or in the cloud. The Department of Defense is paying special attention to how SIEM systems can help secure multiple levels of cloud-based data storage and will be investing heavily in research and development in the new year.
That’s good news because the National Science and Technology Council just released the FY 2023 Federal Cybersecurity R&D Strategic Plan Implementation Roadmap. The Plan provides priorities for cybersecurity R&D in alignment with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, which provides guidance on managing and reducing cybersecurity risks confronted by businesses and organizations. Public sector organizations can use the roadmap as they work with their SIEM teams to plan for next year’s cybersecurity challenges.
Retail & Manufacturing
Cybersecurity is getting complicated for retailers this year already, with malware spreading via TikTok over the Thanksgiving holiday. In 2023, retail CISOs will need to invest in SIEM systems to safeguard their supply chain vulnerabilities, which are increasingly susceptible to attacks. Retailers that operate with the Internet of Things (IoT) products will also ensure that the products they sell are secure for consumers, which is a very tall order.
As more data and information move to the cloud, retailers should audit their existing SIEM system and ensure everything is up to date. Traditional legacy SIEM systems can handle the data, but it takes time to complete the required analysis to identify threats or vulnerabilities. With newer systems, massive amounts of data can be ingested and provide advanced analytics quickly.
Healthcare
As hospitals and healthcare systems increasingly embrace technology while simultaneously being slammed by the COVID-19 crisis, threat levels this year and next are consistently on the rise. A major shift to telemedicine in the industry means there are more endpoints to secure than ever before, and in 2023, the trend will continue.
SIEM systems can help healthcare organizations update their new spaces and equipment to face cyber threats. They can help address the high turnover in the sector, incorporate new technologies, and safeguard the massive databases that have developed as an effect of COVID-19 and other global diseases.
Types of SIEM
CISOs in all sectors generally have a high degree of flexibility when it comes to choosing the SIEM system they want to use, and it’s a tough choice because there are a lot of solutions available. Some factors to consider while planning for 2023 are the organization size, infrastructure complexity, applications in use, alerts produced, and dedicated staff availability.
Monitoring Systems
Monitoring SIEMs allow organizations to collect and analyze data from digital asset logs in a single place. This allows them to recreate past breaches, review suspicious activity, and easily engage in pen testing to identify any vulnerabilities.
SEIMs can monitor perimeter devices, Windows events, endpoint logs, application logs, proxy logs, and IoT logs. Depending on the hardware and endpoint environment your organization has, you may want to go with a specific monitoring system that is dedicated to a specific endpoint, or a more sophisticated system that can handle part or all of the six types of monitoring SIEMs.
Reporting Systems
CISOs may also want to consider new reporting systems depending on their organization. The reports to consider are authentication reports, which analyze login attempts and any brute force attack attempts, file access attempts, changes to users, groups, and services, threat/security events, and attack events. Again, this is subject to the organization as these reports can be adjusted and customized to meet your specific needs.
As we head into 2023, whatever industry you’re in, Compuquip is here to help with any questions you may have about preparing for upcoming cybersecurity challenges.
