Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Annual Blog Round-Up – 2016

Here is my annual "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 10 popular posts/topics in 2016. Note that my current Gartner blog is where you go for my recent blogging, all of the content below predates 2011.

  1. Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not.
  2. “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 2016 research on developing security monitoring use cases here!
  3. 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)
  4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always hot! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ in 2017 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 (out in its 4th edition!
  5. “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 (a lot more details on this here in this paper).
  6. 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 tools, see this document)
  7. “How to Write an OK SIEM RFP?” (from 2010) contains Anton’s least hated SIEM RFP writing tips (I don’t have any favorite tips since I hate the RFP process)
  8. “An Open Letter to Android or “Android, You Are Shit!”” is an epic rant about my six year long (so far) relationship with Android mobile devices (no spoilers here – go and read it).
  9. “A Myth of An Expert Generalist” is a fun rant on what I think it means to be “a security expert” today; it argues that you must specialize within security to really be called an expert.
  10. Another old checklist, “Log Management Tool Selection Checklist Out!”  holds a top spot  – it can be used to compare log management tools during the tool selection process or even formal RFP process. But let me warn you – this is from 2010.

Disclaimer: all this content 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.

Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Monthly Blog Round-Up – December 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:
  1. “An Open Letter to Android or “Android, You Are Shit!”” is an epic rant about my six year long (so far) relationship with Android mobile devices (no spoilers here – go and read it).
  2. “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 2016 research on developing security monitoring use cases here!
  3. Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. 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” … 
  4. Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” (also aged a bit by now) is a companion to the checklist (updated version)
  5. 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+ 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 (now in its 4th edition!)
In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 
 
Current research on security analytics and UBA / UEBA:
Recent research on deception:
Miscellaneous fun posts:

(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.

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.

Previous post in this endless series:

Dr Anton Chuvakin