Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) continues to be a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, reflecting its pivotal role in modern security operations. Since the release of version 8, ES has delivered a revitalized user interface through Mission Control and introduced powerful automation capabilities via integration with Splunk SOAR. The latest general availability release is ES 8.1, further strengthens its offerings for organizations seeking robust, adaptive security solutions across ever expanding IT environments being it in on-prem/cloud, Networks, and IoT ecosystems. Maximizing the value of Splunk ES is fundamentally about an organisation’s ability to strategically configure and leverage the extensive frameworks and capabilities it provides in today’s dynamic security environment Assets & Identities framework Threat Intelligence framework Data Model Acceleration (DMA) ESCU (Enterprise Security Content Update) Risk Based Alerting Along with these essential pillars, Splunk ES 8.x introduces a suite of features designed to empower blue teams: Mission Control with Analyst Queue : Brand new UI experience which streamlines investigation workflows, fosters collaboration, and provides a unified analyst experience to respond faster and more effectively. Detection versioning: Facilitates auditability and continuous improvement of detection logic, Flexibility to turn on individual versions and diff with previous version of detection logic. Response plans: Predefined tasks for investigations or findings, ensuring consistent pre-guided triage when linked to a Detection. Find them in ES App → Security Content Menu. Run SOAR Playbooks and actions straight from Finding/Investigation: ES 8.1 version onwards SOAR can be directly paired, It enables seamless automated actions empower security teams to launch investigations and remediation actions on the fly, shrinking the window of exposure. Let's dive into essential pillars, Assets & Identities framework: The Assets & Identities framework delivers a unified approach to collect, extract and store organisational assets such as endpoints, network devices, and IoT devices, by offering a configurable approach of sources like CMDB, LDAP , and Active Directory (Refer Extract asset and identity data in Splunk Enterprise Security | Splunk Docs) . Similarly, Identities aka user accounts who is having access to these systems and devices. This framework adds vital context to findings by enriching observable detected during investigations, such as IP addresses, hostnames, and user accounts. An observable represents any entity under monitoring whether it is flagged as malicious or benign enabling security teams to swiftly assess risk and respond with clarity and precision. Threat Intelligence framework: The constant changes in cyber threats mean you need the latest intelligence. Adding known threat feeds into ES helps organizations spot new attacks, recognize patterns, and prepare defences before problems get worse. This framework lets you download both open-source and paid feeds (see https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise-security-8/administer/8.0/threat-intelligence/available-premium-intelligence-sources-for-splunk-enterprise-security#d1c1a9089c1954409be651f24ad0f23e2__Available_premium_intelligence_sources_for_Splunk_Enterprise_Security) in a way that can be set up for your needs. A feed might include suspicious domains, IP addresses, or file hashes. It also comes with built-in threat matching rules and extra information. The framework stores collected feeds in a KV store and writes matching events to threat_activity index, which then builds into the Threat Intelligence data model for further use (see https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise-security-8/rest-api-reference/8.0/threat-intelligence-endpoints/threat-intelligence-api-reference#ariaid-title5). Data Model Acceleration (DMA): Organizations face challenges with increasingly large volumes of raw data, making analysis time-consuming and resource intensive. Data models in ES are inherited from Splunk Enterprise product and have been adapted for ES use. DMA allows security teams to quickly analyse large datasets and apply consistent use cases. CIM normalization (see Use the CIM to normalize data at search time | Splunk Docs) prepares data for acceleration; many Splunkbase technology add-ons offer CIM compliance, though manual setup is also possible. Splunk ES utilises various data models, including Risk Analysis, Threat Intelligence, Authentication, Change, Endpoint, Alerts, Network Sessions, Network Traffic, and Malware etc. Data model configurations are found in the Splunk_SA_CIM app. You have a choice to use pre-built data models or optionally define custom Data models for unique data sets. ESCU (Enterprise Security Content Update): The ESCU provides an ideal starting point for organizations new to Splunk ES, offering a robust library of use cases complete with recommended data sources, detection's and SOAR playbooks. These out-of-the-box detection's can be deployed directly or tailored to fit unique operational needs. If data is already accelerated through DMA, deploying ESCU detection's becomes a straightforward process. In addition, the Splunk Security Research team continuously refreshes the ESCU library with new use cases and detection's, helping environments remain current and resilient against the latest threats. Risk Based Alerting: Risk-Based Alerting is a detection engineering methodology designed to handle low-fidelity findings, labelled as "Intermediate Findings" in ES 8.x. Risk scores can be attributed to users, systems, device or custom-defined entities, and a Finding based Detection monitors cumulative risk over time, generating incidents when threshold meet which is typically set at 100 are met. This approach reduces alert fatigue for Security Operations Center (SOC) while ensuring that relevant, potentially significant events are still surfaced. (See https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/gated/ebooks/the-splunk-guide-to-risk-based-alerting.pdf) "Splunk ES 8.x empowers organizations with adaptive, Intuitive features and best practices to meet evolving security challenges. By leveraging its frameworks and automation, teams can strengthen their defences and respond to threats with greater speed ."
... View more
