Many businesses rely heavily on traditional SIEM systems as the cornerstone of their cybersecurity posture. However, recent analysis reveals a concerning gap in detection capabilities. It appears that these foundational systems are significantly underperforming, failing to identify a vast majority of known attacker techniques mapped out in leading threat intelligence frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK.
The data is stark: a substantial percentage of documented attack methodologies simply aren’t triggering alerts or being detected by typical enterprise SIEM deployments. This isn’t necessarily a flaw in the concept of SIEM itself, but rather highlights critical issues in how these systems are often implemented, configured, and maintained. Common culprits include incomplete data ingestion from critical sources, inadequate tuning of rules and correlations, a focus on signatures rather than behavioral techniques, and a lack of alignment with current threat intelligence.
This pervasive failure to detect known attacker behaviors means that sophisticated threats are potentially moving laterally, escalating privileges, and exfiltrating data within networks without ever tripping the primary wire. Relying solely on an underperforming SIEM leaves organizations vulnerable to persistent and targeted attacks.
To address this critical weakness, businesses must move beyond basic SIEM deployment. This requires a strategic focus on ensuring comprehensive data collection across the environment, rigorously tuning detection rules to align with modern techniques outlined in frameworks like ATT&CK, integrating behavioral analytics, and investing in continuous monitoring and rule refinement. Effective cybersecurity detection demands proactive effort and a recognition that traditional tools, without careful configuration and maintenance, are insufficient against today’s evolving threat landscape. Strengthening SIEM effectiveness is paramount to improving overall security hygiene and protecting against damaging breaches.
Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/06/09/siem-detection-coverage/
