Centralized Evidence + Safe Automation (Detect Fast, Respond Faster)
SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) is your source of truth for security telemetry and audit evidence.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation & Response) turns that truth into action—fast, safe, and reversible.
SolveForce designs SIEM/SOAR as one system: collect → normalize → detect → decide → act → prove. You get high-fidelity alerts, measurable MTTR cuts, and audit-ready timelines—without breaking production.
In the SolveForce model:
🔒 Security (Semantics) → Cybersecurity • 🧠 Analytics/Automation → SIEM / SOAR (this page)
🛡️ Controls → EDR / MDR / XDR • NDR • DLP • WAF / Bot Management
🔑 Identity/Access → IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE
☁️ Cloud → Cloud • 🖧 Fabric → Networks & Data Centers
🎯 Outcomes (What You Can Prove in 90 Days)
- Lower MTTD/MTTR: detect in ≤ 5–10 min, contain in ≤ 15–30 min for Sev-1 with playbooks.
- Noise ↓, Fidelity ↑: cross-domain correlation (endpoint + network + identity + cloud) raises precision.
- Audit-ready evidence: immutable cases with timelines, artifacts, approvals, and RCAs.
- Operating clarity: SLO dashboards (ingestion lag, alert latency, precision/recall, coverage, cost).
- Safe automation: rollbacks, blast-radius caps, approvals—automation that can’t run away.
🧭 What SIEM Ingests (Scope & Normalization)
- Endpoints/Servers: EDR events, process/script, FIM. → EDR / MDR / XDR
- Network: NetFlow/IPFIX, DNS, TLS SNI/JA3, firewall/IPS/WAF, PCAP metadata. → NDR • WAF / Bot Management
- Identity & Access: IdP logs (SAML/OIDC), MFA outcomes, PAM events, directory changes. → IAM / SSO / MFA • PAM
- Cloud & K8s: CloudTrail/Activity, API calls, storage/object actions, k8s audit. → Cloud
- Email/Web/SaaS: SEG verdicts, sandbox, SWG/CASB actions. → SASE
- Data Security: DLP incidents, tokenization/watermark actions. → DLP
Normalization: map to a unified schema (host, user, src/dst, action, object, result, severity, labels) so rules and searches are portable and fast.
🧱 Architecture (Clean Pipes → Low Lag → High Trust)
Collectors/Agents → Buffer/Bus → Parsers/Enrichers → SIEM (hot/warm/cold) → Detections/UEBA → Cases → SOAR → ITSM
- Hot tier (7–30d): fast search & rules. Warm/cold (90–365d+): compliance, legal hold.
- Enrichment: asset/user inventories, geo/ASN, threat intel, business labels (BU, data class).
- Lag SLOs: alarms if ingest > 60–120 s 90p; alert latency Sev-1 ≤ 60 s post-event.
🔍 Detections (ATT&CK-Aligned, Cross-Domain)
- C2 Beaconing: periodicity + JA3 anomalies + DNS features.
- Lateral Movement: SMB enum/RDP valid + service creation + admin group add.
- Account Takeover/BEC: impossible travel + inbox rules + token misuse.
- Ransomware: encryption patterns + shadow-copy tamper + suspicious parent tree.
- Exfiltration: egress to new ASN/cloud + DLP hits + time/geo oddities.
Goal: priority rules precision ≥ 92–95%, recall ≥ 80–90% after tuning.
⚙️ SOAR: Orchestrated Response (Safe by Design)
Typical automated actions (with guardrails):
- Endpoints: isolate host, kill/quarantine, collect triage bundle. → EDR / MDR / XDR
- Network: FW/WAF rules, NAC quarantine, SD-WAN pin/blackhole, Anycast withdraw. → NAC • SD-WAN • WAF / Bot Management
- Identity: revoke sessions, step-up MFA, lock user, rotate privileged secrets. → IAM / SSO / MFA • PAM
- Cloud/SaaS: disable keys, freeze buckets, snapshot disks, CASB session control. → Cloud • SASE
- Data: quarantine object, watermark, route to tokenization. → DLP
Safety rails: simulation/dry-run, approvals for destructive steps, blast-radius caps, rate limits, automatic rollback/circuit-breaker, change IDs via ITSM.
📐 SLO Guardrails (Measure What Matters)
| SLO | Target (Recommended) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ingestion lag (90p) | ≤ 60–120 s | Source → index |
| Alert latency (Sev-1) | ≤ 60 s | Event → rule fire |
| MTTD (Sev-1) | ≤ 5–10 min | Correlated detections |
| MTTC (Sev-1) | ≤ 15–30 min | SOAR playbooks + approvals |
| Rule precision (priority) | ≥ 92–95% | Post-tuning |
| Coverage (required sources) | ≥ 95% | Onboarded + normalized |
| Evidence completeness (Sev-1/2) | 100% | Timeline + artifacts + approvals |
| Platform availability | ≥ 99.9–99.99% | Multi-AZ/region optional |
Dashboards expose SLOs + cost (GB/day, hot%), so leaders see value and spend.
🧰 Playbook Library (Concrete, Auditable)
1) Ransomware (Sev-1) → isolate host, kill encryptor, block hash/domain, NAC quarantine, force re-auth, recover from immutable backup.
→ Backup Immutability
2) Account Takeover → revoke sessions, require MFA, rotate privileged secrets (PAM), tighten ZTNA groups, notify owner.
→ ZTNA • PAM
3) C2 / Exfil → block domain/IP, SD-WAN sinkhole, Anycast withdraw for impacted POPs, open DLP case, notify IR.
→ SD-WAN • BGP Management • DLP
4) Phishing/BEC → quarantine/purge tenant-wide, invalidate tokens, warn potential victims, raise IR case.
→ Incident Response
5) Zero-day Virtual Patch → push WAF rule, staged rollout, health checks, change ticket, rollback if SLOs dip.
→ WAF / Bot Management
Each playbook is versioned, tested, and linked to approvals and RCAs.
🔒 Data Governance & Privacy
- Immutability/WORM: preserve evidence; legal hold support.
- PII minimization: parse/mask where possible; decrypt only with scope/approval.
- Access control: RBAC/ABAC for analysts/admins; step-up MFA for privileged actions.
- Chain-of-custody: artifact hashing, access logs, case IDs.
Compliance mappings: PCI DSS 10, HIPAA 164.312(b), ISO 27001 A.12/A.16, NIST 800-53/171 AU/IR/SI, CMMC.
🧪 Tuning Loop (Weekly Cadence)
- Review false-positives/negatives; adjust thresholds, sequences, intel lists.
- Validate parser health & schema drift; fix ingest that breaks rules.
- Promote hunts → rules; retire rules that never fire.
- Rehearse playbooks (quarantine, token revoke, WAF patch, sinkhole); record RCAs.
→ Tabletop Exercises
🧾 Implementation Blueprint (No-Surprise Rollout)
- Source inventory & policy (EDR, NDR, IdP, Cloud, FW/WAF, Email, DLP, ticketing).
- Schemas/parsers (unified fields), golden-sample tests.
- Pipelines (collectors, buffers, transforms) with lag alarms.
- Correlation library (ATT&CK rules + UEBA baselines), precision/recall targets.
- Playbooks & approvals (Sev map, owners, rollback, blast caps).
- Dashboards (lag, latency, coverage, precision, MTTR, GB/day).
- Drills (ransomware, ATO, exfil, blackhole); publish RCAs and improvements.
- Operate & tune (weekly loop); monthly exec reports.
📊 Metrics That Matter
- MTTD/MTTR delta vs last quarter.
- Precision/recall for top rules.
- Coverage % (required sources online & normalized).
- Auto-contain % (safe incidents closed without human touch).
- Rollback count (keep low; investigate).
- Cost per GB/day (optimize with tiering & scoping).
🔄 Where SIEM / SOAR Fits (Recursive View)
1) Grammar — signals traverse Connectivity & Networks & Data Centers.
2) Syntax — delivery patterns in Cloud inform sensor placement and actions.
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity preserves truth; SIEM proves it.
4) Pragmatics — SOAR executes decisions; SolveForce AI enriches and predicts.
5) Foundation — shared terms under Primacy of Language.
6) Map — indexed in SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub.
📞 Launch SIEM / SOAR that’s Fast and Safe
Related pages:
Cybersecurity • EDR / MDR / XDR • NDR • IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE • DLP • WAF / Bot Management • Incident Response • NOC Services • Knowledge Hub