iSACA Cybersecurity Fundamentals Certification Practice Exam

How does Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) improve upon SEM?

1. By adding real-time monitoring features

2. By combining SEM capabilities with historical analysis

3. By eliminating the need for firewalls

4. By focusing solely on network hardware

The correct answer is: By combining SEM capabilities with historical analysis

The correct answer highlights that Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) enhances the capabilities of Security Event Management (SEM) by merging SEM functionalities with historical analysis. This integration provides organizations with a comprehensive view of security data by not only capturing real-time event logs, which SEM traditionally focuses on, but also allowing for the long-term storage and analysis of historical security events. The significance of this combination lies in the ability to correlate events over time, identify patterns, and detect sophisticated threats that may be imperceptible when only evaluating live data streams. This historical context helps in effective incident response and improves overall security posture by enabling better threat detection, compliance reporting, and forensic investigations. Other options, while they may present relevant functionalities, do not encapsulate the primary enhancement that SIEM offers over SEM. For example, real-time monitoring features, while crucial, are part of both SEM and SIEM but do not exclusively signify the improvement. Moreover, eliminating the need for firewalls and focusing solely on network hardware does not pertain to the functionalities or enhancements that SIEM provides over SEM.