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Open Source Security Information and Event Management system

Security Management

Article from ADMIN 20/2014

By Joseph Guarino

Systems, network, and security professionals face a big problem managing disparate security data from a variety of sources. OSSIM gives IT security professionals the capacity to cut through the noise and gain wisdom and foresight in defending and managing their networks.

A mind-numbing array of applications, operating systems, routers, firewalls, VPNs, and cloud resources confront IT security professionals, with no shortage of logs and security events that need to be correlated and interpreted. The "old-school" way of one-off solutions for various security challenges just won't work anymore. What is needed is a comprehensive solution that integrates disparate data and processes and provides knowledge and insight into security threats and a capacity to manage risks more effectively.

The Open Source Security Information and Event Management (OSSIM) system [1] is a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) application. SIEMs are multipurpose tools for the security operations professional. They offer asset discovery, behavioral monitoring, data aggregation and correlation, security/threat intelligence, threat detection, and vulnerability assessment, among other features. SIEMs are a necessary evolution in the technology used to manage modern threats, and OSSIM is a key leader in the space.

OSSIM offers an expansive array of features that would leave any IT security professional duly impressed, including:

Security information management
Security event management
Asset management and discovery
Log management
Network management
IDS (intrusion detection)
HID (host intrusion detection)
Vulnerability assessment
Threat detection
Behavioral monitoring
Netflow support
Incident response
Reporting
Powerful and user-friendly web interface
Simple-to-install, prepackaged virtual machines

OSSIM has many core components born of the open source community. It takes all of these disparate, often time-consuming-to-integrate tools and puts them under one beautifully usable web interface.

It takes the

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