CISA Releases Strategic Guidance to Strengthen SIEM and SOAR Deployment

As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated and IT environments become more complex, security teams face mounting pressure to stay one step ahead. In response, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre have released new guidance to help organizations effectively deploy SIEM and SOAR platforms, critical tools for centralizing data, detecting threats, and automating incident response.

Common challenges in deploying SIEM and SOAR platforms

Most organizations often face significant challenges when implementing and deploying SIEM and SOAR solutions. The implementation requires a substantial financial investment, and these platforms demand continuous attention and maintenance. These platforms are becoming increasingly important because organizations generate/store vast amounts of data, and they become more attractive targets for cybercriminals.

Moreover, the complexity of IT environments is growing rapidly, and it becomes harder for security teams to maintain visibility across the entire network. These gaps in visibility make it easier for attackers to remain undetected. SIEM and SOAR platforms help address these challenges by centralizing data, improving threat detection, and automating responses to defend against sophisticated cyber threats.

What are the best practices?

According to CISA, deploying SIEM and SOAR platforms is a complex ongoing effort that demands skilled cybersecurity professionals. One of the biggest technical challenges is ensuring that these platforms only trigger alerts when a real cybersecurity incident is occurring, allowing teams to respond quickly and effectively.

Secondly, administrators should ensure that their SIEMs are properly configured and generating alerts before implementing a SOAR platform. SOAR relies on those alerts to trigger automated actions and orchestrate responses.

Additionally, organizations should understand the full financial impact when planning to implement SIEM and SOAR platforms. Many vendors use pricing models based on the volume of data ingested into the system. These data-related charges can quickly add up, especially in large and complex environments. There are also other ongoing expenses, such as the cost of training staff to use and manage the platforms effectively.

Lastly, the guidance emphasizes two important considerations for successful SIEM and SOAR deployment, including performance testing and implementation control. Performance testing is essential because it ensures the platforms can handle the amount of data and the speed of processing required in real-world conditions.

Moreover, organizations may benefit from managing the SIEM and SOAR implementation internally rather than outsourcing it. Outsourcing could introduce challenges such as reduced visibility into operations, duplicated efforts between internal and external teams, and communication barriers that can slow down response times or lead to misconfigurations.

CISA’s top recommendations for security practitioners

CISA’s guidance includes key recommendations for SIEM and SOAR implementation for security practitioners. Organizations should establish a baseline of network activity, which should help to understand what normal activity looks like across the organization’s network, systems, and user behaviour. It should help security teams to more effectively identify anomalies that may indicate a security incident. It’s also advised to baseline logging and application standards, as well as define the scope of implementation to focus on the high-risk areas.

Furthermore, security practitioners should focus on ingesting logs from the most high-risk systems first, such as domain controllers, VPNs, and cloud services. Moreover, they must build and test playbooks that define step-by-step actions the system should take when specific alerts are triggered.

Lastly, SIEM and SOAR platforms should be integrated with other security tools to create a more cohesive and responsive ecosystem. It’s highly recommended to conduct regular performance testing, feedback loops, and updates to detection logic and response workflows to keep up with changing threats and organizational needs.