There’s no denying the fact that many enterprises worldwide use security information and event management (SIEM) software. These products collect, analyze, and create reports on cybersecurity data from the range of systems an organization uses. Some SIEM programs are even capable of stopping attacks in progress as soon as these are detected.

Despite their excellent reputation, however, SIEM software usage still faces some stiff challenges. To be the best, SIEM application providers need to address these difficulties head-on.

This post talks about three common challenges SIEM software vendors face that an IP netblocks WHOIS database can help with.

Challenge #1: Effective Use of Threat Intelligence

Many SIEM applications rely on threat intelligence feeds. These feeds, which are obtainable from external subscriptions, provide information on threat activities. The data they contain can help users identify the owners of IP addresses that are involved in attacks. With it, they can find related website URLs that should be blocked to protect against threats. When used in combination with logs of known attack indicators, the SIEM software can be configured to block network access coming from malicious sites and pages instantly.

Of course, the quality of the threat intelligence sources organizations use may vary. That is why SIEM software vendors need to consider how accurate and timely the information on their intelligence sources is.

Challenge #2: Ideal Forensic Capabilities

One criterion that continually evolves when evaluating SIEM software is forensic capability. Traditionally, a SIEM product only gathers data supplied by internal log sources.

Some applications can perform forensic analyses on their own, as they collect information on suspicious activities. A typical example is a software that takes full packet captures of network connections related to malicious activities. This capability allows SIEM analysts to review packet contents more closely, assuming these aren’t encrypted.

Other SIEM products perform host activity logging at all times. In some cases, logging is only triggered when the SIEM software suspects a specific host of relations to malicious hosts.

Challenge #3: Data Analysis Features

SIEM applications that are relied upon for incident response should have built-in features that help users analyze logs. Log data should include alerts that the software generates along with other findings. The main reason for this is that even accurate SIEM programs can misinterpret events occasionally. Such a case can lead to false positives, so users need a way to validate the results an application produces.

Security analysts also require reliable interfaces to facilitate their activities. They need interfaces that can perform data visualization and sophisticated searches, for example.

What Can IP Netblocks Data Contribute?

An IP netblocks database provides SIEM software vendors with up-to-date information on all registered IP ranges. The details that are obtainable from such include domain ownership, country, subnetwork names, and contact information. WhoisXML API’s netblock repository stores data on almost 9 million IP netblocks with an additional 12,000 ranges daily.

Since the origin of threats can be traced using an IP address, SIEM software vendors may find access to IP netblocks information quite useful. They can also use IP Netblocks API to identify and block access to and from malicious IP addresses quickly. Such a prompt action can mitigate potential damages or even wholly deflect attacks.

Additional APIs can also be easily integrated into existing processes so these can immediately contribute to SIEM data enrichment. APIs can provide analysts with more types of threat intelligence, for example, for in-depth investigations.

* * *

SIEM software, though in high demand, need to address challenges to become a market leader. Vendors that fail to meet specific criteria may end up missing out and eventually get toppled by the competition. Using a quality data source like an IP netblocks database can give SIEM software providers an edge.