What does a security information and event management (SIEM) system primarily do?

A security information and event management (SIEM) system primarily functions to collect, analyze, and correlate security data from various sources within an organization's IT environment. This includes data from servers, network devices, domain controllers, and more. By aggregating logs and event data from these diverse sources, a SIEM enables security teams to gain insights into potential security incidents by identifying anomalies, patterns, and correlations that may indicate malicious activities or security breaches.

The analysis and correlation of this data are critical, as they help in detecting threats in real-time and prior to them being exploited. SIEM systems also facilitate compliance reporting by maintaining records of security events and providing visibility into the security landscape of an organization. This capability makes them invaluable tools for proactive security monitoring and incident response.

Other options involve functions that are outside the primary focus of a SIEM. For example, while collecting and distributing security guidelines is important for security policy enforcement, it is not the main function of a SIEM. Similarly, transferring data to cloud storage may be relevant in certain contexts but does not align with the core responsibilities of SIEM systems. Lastly, managing an inventory of security tools is also not a function attributed to SIEM systems, which instead focus primarily on security data collection and analysis.