Monthly Blog Round-Up – April 2018

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts based on last

month’s visitor data  (excluding other monthly or annual round-ups):

1. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our research on developing security monitoring use cases here – and we just UPDATED IT FOR 2018.
2. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this rapidly aging checklist is still a useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” (also aged quite a bit by now) is a companion to the checklist (updated version)
3. “Updated With Community Feedback SANS Top 7 Essential Log Reports DRAFT2” is about top log reports project of 2008-2013, I think these are still very useful in response to “what reports will give me the best insight from my logs?”
4. Again, my classic PCI DSS Log Review series is extra popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ even though it predates it), useful for building log review processes and procedures, whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book  – note that this series is even mentioned in some PCI Council materials. 
5. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009 (oh, wow, ancient history!). Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” … 

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has more than 7X of the traffic of this blog]: 

Critical reference posts:

• Important: How to Impress / Annoy an Analyst During a Vendor Briefing? Best / Worst Tips Here!
• “Tell Us About Your Technology” and More Analyst Briefing Tips

Current research on testing security:

• How Much of Your Security Gear Is Misconfigured or Not Configured?
• Security Testing: At What Level?
• On Negative Pressure or Why NOT Objectively Test Security?
• The Bane of All Security Tests: Acting on Results
• Threat Simulation Call to Action for 2018
• New Research: How to Actually Test Security?

Current research on threat detection “starter kit”

• Baby’s First Threat Assessment?
• The Best Starting Technology for Detection?
• Back to Basics: Indispensable Security Processes for Detection and Response
• New Research: Starting Your Detection and Response Capability
  

Just finished research on SOAR:

• Our Security Orchestration and Automation (SOAR) Paper Publishes
• SOAR Webinar Questions – Answered
• SOAR and Ticketing: Friends, Frenemies or the Same thing?
• SOAR and “Curve-jumping” in Security Operations
• SOAR: Magic or Mundane?
• SOAR Research Coming … Brace for Impact!!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• “Do They Have AI?” or That Rant on AI in Security  <- extra fun  because “AI!” :-)
• RSA 2018: Not As Messy As Before?
• All My Research Published in 2017
• On Wild Security Maturity Overestimation
• Security Without Security People: A [Sad] Way Forward?
• Befuddled By “Hackback”
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.

Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on August 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Other posts in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – Feburary 2018
• All posts tagged monthly