Monthly Blog Round-Up – August 2015

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Current popularity of open source log search tools, BTW, does not break the logic of that post. Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. That – and developing a SIEM is much harder than most people think  [274 pageviews]
2. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – the checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [101 pageviews]
3. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3.1 as well), 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 (just out in its 4th edition!) [95+ pageviews to the main tag]
4. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the SIEM project (well, a program, really) costs at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper). [94 pageviews]
5. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” came from one of my last projects I did when running my SIEM consulting firm in 2009-2011 (for my recent work on evaluating SIEM, see this document [2015 update]) [74 pageviews out of a total of 4157 views]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog:

Current research on VA tools and VM practices:

• Revisiting Vulnerability Assessment and Vulnerability Management Research

Current maverick research on AI/smart machines risks:

• On Evil AIs and Evil People

Past research on cloud security monitoring:

• My “How to Monitor the Security of Public Cloud Resources” Publishes
• Trouble In The Cloud?!
• Cloud Security Monitoring … Revisited (aka It Is Not 2012 Anymore!)

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Your SOC Nuclear Triad
• Threat Intelligence and Operational Agility
• On Space Between Detection and Response
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Enable the Business? Sometimes Security Must Say “NO”…
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• 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.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog 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.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – July 2015
• All posts tagged monthly