Security information and event management (SIEM) systems are a type of security technology that can help protect against cyber attacks by collecting, analyzing, and correlating security-related data from various sources in real time.

Here are the basic steps of how SIEM systems work:

1. SIEMs collect security-related data from various sources such as network devices, servers, and applications. This data can include log files, network traffic, and security alerts.
2. The collected data is analyzed in real-time to identify potential security breaches or threats. This analysis can include looking for specific patterns in the data, such as unusual network traffic or failed login attempts, that might indicate a security incident.
3. The SIEM correlates and links the events from the different sources, making it easier to detect the complete attack pattern and providing a more comprehensive view of the security situation.
4. The SIEM generates alerts for security incidents and anomalies based on the correlated data and sends the alerts to the security administrator.
5. The security administrator can use the SIEM’s user interface to investigate the alerts and determine the cause of the security incident. Based on this information, they can take steps to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future and contain the current ones.

SIEMs are powerful tools that can help organizations detect and respond to security incidents more quickly and effectively, by providing a centralized view of the security situation across the entire organization and automating correlation tasks. It’s important to keep in mind that SIEMs need to be properly configured, fine-tuned, and kept up-to-date with the latest security information to be effective, also requires a dedicated team to monitor the system and take action on the alerts generated by the SIEM.