Security operations centers (SOCs) are struggling to create automated detection and response capabilities. While custom security information and event management (SIEM) use cases can allow businesses to improve automation, creating use cases requires clear business logic. Many security organizations lack efficient, accurate methods to distinguish between authorized and unauthorized activity patterns across components of the enterprise network.

Even the most intelligent SIEM can fail to deliver value when it’s not optimized for use cases, or if rules are created according to incorrect parameters. Creating a framework that can accurately detect suspicious activity requires baselines, naming conventions and effective policies.

Defining Parameters for SIEM Use Cases Is a Barrier to SOC Success

Over the past few years, I’ve consulted with many enterprise SOCs to improve threat detection and incident response capabilities. Regardless of SOC maturity, most organizations struggle to accurately define the difference between authorized and suspicious patterns of activity, including users, admins, access patterns and scripts. Countless SOC leaders are stumped when they’re asked to define authorized patterns of activity for mission-critical systems.

SIEM rules can be used to automate detection and response capabilities for common threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), authentication failures and malware. However, these rules must be built on clear business logic for accurate detection and response capabilities. Baseline business logic is necessary to accurately define risky behavior in SIEM use cases.

Building a Baseline for Cyber Hygiene

Cyber hygiene is defined as the consistent execution of activities necessary to protect the integrity and security of enterprise networks, including users, data assets and endpoints. A hygiene framework should offer clear parameters for threat response and acceptable use based on policies for user governance, network access and admin activities. Without an understanding of what defines typical, secure operations, it’s impossible to create an effective strategy for security maintenance.

A comprehensive framework for cybersecurity hygiene can simplify security operations and create guidelines for SIEM use cases. However, capturing an effective baseline for systems can strengthen security frameworks and create order in chaos. To empower better hygiene and threat detection capabilities based on business logic, established standards such as a naming convention can create clear parameters.

VLAN Network Categories

For the purpose of simplified illustration, imagine that your virtual local area networks (VLANs) are categorized among five criticality groups — named A, B, C, D and E — with the mission-critical VLAN falling into the A category (<vlan_name>_A).

A policy may be created to dictate that A-category VLAN systems can communicate directly with any other category without compromising data security. However, communication with the A-category VLAN from B, C, D or E networks is not allowed. Authentication to a jump host can accommodate authorized exceptions to this standard, such as when E-category users need access to an A-category server.

Creating a naming convention and policy for VLAN network categories can help you develop simple SIEM use cases to prevent unauthorized access to A resources and automatically detect suspicious access attempts.

Directory Services and Shared Resources

You can also use naming convention frameworks to create a policy for managing groups of user accounts according to access level in directory services, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Active Directory (AD). A standardized naming convention for directory services provides a clear framework for acceptable user access to shared folders and resources. AD users categorized within the D category may not have access to A-category folders or <shared_folder_name>_A.

Creating effective SIEM rules based on these use cases is a bit more complex than VLAN business logic since it involves two distinct technologies and potentially complex policies for resource access. However, creating standards that connect user access to resources establishes clear parameters for strict, contextual monitoring. Directory users with A-category access may require stricter change monitoring due to the potential for abuse of admin capabilities. You can create SIEM use cases to detect other configuration mistakes, such as a C-category user who is suddenly escalated to A-category.

Username Creation

Many businesses are already applying some logic to standardize username creation for employees. A policy may dictate that users create a seven-character alias that involves three last-name characters, two first-name characters and two digits. Someone named Janet Doe could have the username DoeJa01, for example. Even relatively simple username conventions can support SIEM use cases for detecting suspicious behavior. When eight or more characters are entered into a username field, an event could be triggered to lock the account until a new password is created.

The potential SIEM use cases increase with more complex approaches to username creation, such as 12-character usernames that combine last- and first-name characters with the employee’s unique HR-issued identification. A user named Jonathan Doerty, for instance, could receive an automatically generated username of doertjo_4682. Complex usernames can create friction for legitimate end users, but some minor friction can be justified if it provides greater safeguards for privileged users and critical systems.

An external threat actor may be able to extrapolate simple usernames from social engineering activities, but they’re unlikely to guess an employee’s internal identification number. SIEM rules can quickly detect suspicious access attempts based on username field entries that lack the required username components. Requiring unique identification numbers from HR systems can also significantly lower the risk of admins creating fake user credentials to conceal malicious activity.

Unauthorized Code and Script Locations

Advanced persistent threats can evade detection by creating backdoor access to deploy a carefully disguised malicious code. Standard naming conventions provide a cost-effective way to create logic to detects malware risks. A simple model for script names could leverage several data components, such as department name, script name and script author, resulting in authorized names like HR_WellnessLogins_DoexxJo. Creating SIEM parameters for acceptable script names can automate the detection of malware.

Creating baseline standards for script locations such as /var/opt/scripts and C:\Program Files\<org_name>\ can improve investigation capabilities when code is detected that doesn’t comply with the naming convention or storage parameters. Even the most sophisticated threat actors are unlikely to perform reconnaissance on enterprise naming convention baselines before creating a backdoor and hiding a script. SIEM rules can trigger a response from the moment a suspiciously named script begins to run or a code file is moved into an unauthorized storage location.

Scaling Security Response With Standards

Meaningful threats to enterprise data security often fly under the radar of even the most sophisticated threat detection solutions when there’s no baseline to define acceptable activity. SOC analysts have more technological capabilities than ever, but many are struggling to optimize detection and response with effective SIEM use cases.

Clear, scalable systems to define policies for acceptable activity create order in chaos. The smartest approach to creating effective SIEM use cases relies on standards, a strong naming convention and sound policy. It’s impossible to accurately understand risks without a clear framework for authorized activities. Standards, baselines and naming conventions can remove barriers to effective threat detection and response.