Annual Blog Round-Up – 2012

Here is my annual "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 10 popular posts/topics in 2012.

1. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” was again the most popular this year. The checklist, a list of critical things to look for while reviewing  system, network and security logs when responding to a security incident
2. PCI DSS Log Review series of posts take the #2 spot; they are about planning and executing PCI DSS-driven log review at an organization
3. “On Choosing SIEM” is about the least wrong way of choosing a SIEM tool – as well as why the right way is so unpopular.
4. “On Free Log Management Tools” is another perma-popular post, presenting a companion resource to the log checklist above
5. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” is an EXAMPLE criteria list for choosing a SIEM.
6. “Log Management at $0 and 1hr/week?” is pretty much what it is. How to do log management under extreme budget AND time constraints?
7. “Updated With Community Feedback SANS Top 7 Essential Log Reports” and an older “SANS Top 5 Essential Log Reports Update!”
8. “SIEM Bloggables” has one possible view on higher-level SIEM use cases and basic functionality, and a quick discussion of SIEM user types.
9. “How Do I Get The Best SIEM?” is a discussion (circa 2010) about approaches to choosing SIEM tools and matching functionality to requirements.
10. 2009 post called “Log Management + SIEM = ?” gives some quick architecture advice on combining SIEM and log management

Disclaimer: all this content was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.