Imagine you're responsible for the security of a bustling network, constantly under threat from bad actors looking to exploit any vulnerability. How do you keep up? Enter Snort, a powerful open-source tool that acts as your network’s watchdog, scanning for potential threats and alerting you when something seems off. In this guide, we'll break down how Snort works, focusing on the critical rules that make this tool effective at protecting your network.

Since the rise of the Internet, organizations and individuals have increasingly sought ways to keep their information secure and private. IT has witnessed a changing cyber threat landscape, and businesses have relied more and more on the Internet and data to function. However, the attack landscape widened in the 2010s. With widespread computer worms like Stuxnet in 2010, cybercriminals have gained critical access to organizations through operational technology.

Cyberattacks by hacking groups using ransomware and other tactics dominate the headlines, but the risks posed by individuals within an organization can be just as, if not more, damaging. CISA defines an insider threat as the possibility that authorized personnel will use their access, either intentionally or unintentionally, to harm an organization’s mission, resources, information, systems, or other assets.

The 2024 recognition momentum for Splunk continues! Splunk is ranked #1 for the fourth year in a row in the IDC Worldwide Security Information and Event Management Market Shares, 2023: The Leaders in SIEM City (doc # US52525024, September 2024) report. Splunk has also been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SIEM for Enterprise 2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US49029922, September 2024).

Let’s talk about a less discussed but critical aspect of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) – data management. While the primary goals of SIEM include threat detection, regulatory compliance, and swift response, the backbone of these systems is log message ingestion and storage. The amount of machine data generated from various systems, applications, and security tools is staggering. Storing and processing this data can be costly and inefficient.

On July 19, 2024, CrowdStrike released configuration updates for its Windows sensor, aiming to enhance security and performance. Unfortunately, this update inadvertently led to widespread downtime, manifesting as Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on millions of machines worldwide. The BSOD, a critical system error screen, halts all operations, rendering affected systems inoperable until resolved.

Our world is more digitally connected than ever, including the critical infrastructure systems we rely on: power grids, water treatment plants, transportation networks, communication systems, emergency services, and hospitals. A successful attack on critical infrastructure can have dire consequences, ranging from widespread power outages and contaminated water supplies to economic downturns and societal disruption. Some of those consequences have come to fruition in recent years.

Splunk is proud to announce that Splunk SOAR has received Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Agency Authorization at the Moderate impact level. Splunk SOAR is ready to help public sector teams work smarter by automating repetitive tasks, responding to security incidents in seconds, and increasing analyst productivity and accuracy to better protect their organizations and the missions they serve.

Over the last year, we have continued to witness web shells breaching organizations worldwide, affecting both edge devices and on-premise web applications. Web shells consistently evade standard controls, posing a persistent threat. Today, the Splunk Threat Research Team is excited to announce the final tool in the ShellSweep collection: ShellSweepX.

Modern SecOps teams use Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software to aggregate security logs, detect anomalies, hunt for threats, and enable rapid incident response. While SIEMs enable accurate, near real-time detection of threats, today's SIEM solutions were never designed to handle the volume of security data organizations generate daily. As daily log ingestion grows, so do the costs of data management.