Introduction:
In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, security operations center (SOC) teams are under immense pressure to detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster than ever before. Legacy security information and event management (SIEM) systems have failed to deliver on this promise, leading to the need for better technology that can provide instant time-to-value and increased functionality at a lower cost of ownership. This article explores how AI-powered next-generation SIEM solutions can help SOC teams bend time in their favor, providing faster search performance, improved incident response times, and enhanced overall security.
The Need for Next-Gen SIEM:
According to George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, attackers are becoming increasingly fast and efficient in breaching systems and launching reconnaissance operations. It takes just over two minutes for an attacker to move laterally within a system and only 31 seconds to download a toolkit and start reconnaissance. These alarming statistics highlight the urgent need for SOC teams to rapidly analyze massive amounts of data to detect and respond to threats effectively.
Legacy SIEM systems exacerbate data challenges for SOC teams, leading to slower search speeds, limited visualization options, and conflicting data from multiple systems. SOC analysts often find themselves wasting valuable time switching between screens and comparing incident data. Additionally, legacy SIEMs can take days to ingest data and perform queries, hindering incident triage and response efforts.
Next-Gen SIEM: A Solution for Bend Time:
To address these challenges, CrowdStrike has introduced Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, which aims to accelerate SOC performance by providing faster search performance and lowering the total cost of ownership compared to legacy SIEMs. The core message behind this next-gen SIEM is to remove the roadblocks of legacy systems and strengthen SOCs with AI-driven expertise.
AI Integration in Next-Gen SIEM:
AI is a core component of CrowdStrike’s Falcon Next-Gen SIEM architecture. The use of AI allows for automated data parsing and normalization, enriched data analysis for better threat identification and prioritization, and advanced threat detection and automated response mechanisms. An AI-native SOC is self-learning, leveraging learnings about employees, threats, and the environment specific to each organization. This adaptive retraining of the system over time ensures that it remains effective in detecting emerging threats.
Key Innovations in Falcon Next-Gen SIEM:
Falcon Next-Gen SIEM introduces several key innovations to enhance SOC analyst productivity and incident response capabilities. These include:
1. Generative AI and Workflow Automation: The integration of Charlotte AI, CrowdStrike’s generative AI security analyst, allows SOC analysts to request Falcon data in plain language, generating solutions within seconds. Automated incident correlation and LLM-powered incident summaries further speed up investigations.
2. Native SIEM and SOAR Integration: Falcon Fusion SOAR provides drag-and-drop playbooks and workflows to expedite detection, investigation, and response. The growing library of integrations and actions automates critical security and IT use cases across teams and tools.
3. Rapid Data Ingestion for Enhanced Detection and Response: Expanded data ecosystem connectors, including AWS, Azure, and GCP, allow seamless integration of third-party IT and security data into the Falcon platform. Automated data normalization simplifies onboarding, enabling rapid and accurate detection and response across all data sources.
4. A Modern Analyst Experience with Incident Workbench Innovations: Automated incident enrichment provides context to indicators added by SOC analysts, reducing investigation time. Case management and incident collaboration features improve analyst collaboration and ease of use. Custom lookup files enable the addition of threat intelligence to drive searches without manual processes.
Conclusion:
Next-generation SIEM solutions like CrowdStrike’s Falcon Next-Gen SIEM offer a way for SOC teams to bend time in their favor by providing faster search performance, improved incident response times, and enhanced overall security. By leveraging AI-powered automation, data integration, and workflow enhancements, SOC teams can effectively detect, investigate, and respond to threats, keeping their organizations secure in the face of rapidly evolving cyberattacks. Join the AI Impact Tour event in NYC on June 5th to learn more about auditing AI models for bias, performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations and witness the power of next-gen SIEM in action.
