Old technology poses a risk to businesses' security and compliance requirements. Too often firms rely on what they know, which may turn out to be costly in the long run. Leveraging a SIEMs native capability to monitor user activities and events can make it an invaluable tool to analyze what applications are actually used, what aren't being used, and when deprecating an application can provide great insights into eliminating usage in a cloud first world.
Monitoring User Activities
Deprecated software refers to software no longer supported by its developers and should no longer work; this does not indicate it won't function, however; rather it could become incompatible with updated operating systems. Deprecated programs typically become incompatible with updates in operating systems if used, leading to security risks for organizations using old versions still in their systems; monitoring user activity is an ideal tool when dealing with such situations.
UAM tools with advanced features go beyond monitoring network activity; they offer capabilities that go far beyond that, including identifying sensitive data and application behavior, such as uploading files to cloud storage, using unapproved services/apps or printing documents onto USBs - among many other risky activities. Not only do the most effective UAM tools alert on these risks but can even halt malicious activity within milliseconds of it occurring!
Although user activity monitoring with a SIEM isn't essential for every business, it can be an invaluable addition to your overall security strategy. A SIEM solution collects and analyzes logs from key systems and applications, helping to establish baseline activity records while simultaneously detecting deviations that could indicate attacks or security threats. Most often SIEM solutions offer holistic overview of networks eliminating the need to configure individual tools independently.
There are various options for monitoring user activities, ranging from general security software to more specialized tools that track sessions such as privileged account security solutions. Some more advanced solutions use machine learning or artificial intelligence to establish baseline normal behavior and detect when employees deviate from this baseline norm - though these advanced technologies may require greater engineering effort, support staff support staff training costs or investment dollars than traditional technologies; nonetheless they are well worth their cost in protecting against insider threats in your organization.
Monitoring user activity requires strong governance structures and secure practices, and should also include transparency with users about why this tool is being implemented - to ensure they understand its purpose, as well as agree to be monitored.
Reducing Cloud Applications
Organizations using SIEM can identify and terminate unused applications to reduce cloud costs and eliminate payments for resources not used, and also recommend changes that could optimize usage to ensure peak performance from paid assets.
Cloud applications may be less expensive to run than traditional apps because they do not require on-premise hardware and infrastructure, and more efficient because of auto-scaling to adapt to fluctuating workloads and load balancing to distribute traffic equally. But keeping cloud apps cost effective requires proper planning and management - businesses should automate deployment processes in order to minimize errors while monitoring them real-time for anomalies, in addition to regularly testing updates on smaller instances before rolling them out into production.
Application-aware workload protection tools offer the ideal way to defend aging apps against cyber threats, protecting data loss by guarding against zero-day attacks, file-less malware and memory corruption exploits at host, memory and web levels. Unlike traditional security tools, application-aware workload protection provides granular visibility into cloud environments while offering single pane of glass monitoring across IaaS, SaaS and PaaS environments.
Using a SIEM
SIEM tools can assist organizations with monitoring user activities within an organization. By tracking file changes and providing alerts if suspicious activities are detected - for instance if an employee attempts to move data without authorization or accesses business-critical servers out of office hours without authorisation from their administrator, a SIEM tool may issue an alert that prompts admins to take necessary measures (block IP addresses, send alerts directly to employees or disable devices and restart them etc).
These tools can also monitor incoming traffic and detect threats, helping protect against both new and old cyberattacks. It's important to keep in mind, however, that these tools cannot fully replace the expertise of your IT team; you will still require training your staff on using it regularly while keeping pace with evolving threats and changes to IT infrastructure.
Modern SIEM solutions also use user and entity behavior analytics to detect patterns that could indicate potential security threats. This technology compares baseline standards of normal behavior against anomalous activity, helping organizations quickly assess their risk posture and implement remediation plans.
Use of advanced threat detection technologies, like Microsoft's XDR and CoPilot for Security, can add much greater value to an SIEM platform than simple log collection. By providing in-depth context and insight to data collected by SIEM platforms such as Microsoft Sentinel, SIEM platforms can become invaluable tools in diagnosing and resolving security incidents quickly - potentially saving IT teams from potential large-scale data breaches.
Integrating user activity logs with a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution enables analysts to search specific files or review video recordings of sessions to quickly pinpoint errors that have caused incidents. This cuts incident response times while improving interdepartmental efficiencies; furthermore it makes compliance with IT security regulations such as PCI, HIPAA, NERC and FISMA easier while helping to develop robust cyberthreat responses.
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