Overview
What is AlienVault USM?
AlienVault® Unified Security Management® (USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management in one unified platform. It is designed to combine all the essential security capabilities needed for effective security monitoring across cloud and on-premises environments, including SIEM, intrusion detection, vulnerability management, as…
TrustRadius Insights
Empowering Security Zenith with Unified Vigilance.
will I continue to use USM, Yes I would
Excellent security for your machine
MSSP Review
Great product but out of the box it needs a lot of work.
Great if you can deploy and manage on-premises SIEMs
AlienVault - Not Worth the Price
AlienVault USM Anywhere, a SIEM that is easy on your pocket.
Unbeatable Security Machine
AlienVault USM Provides Heightened Security Awareness in the Legal Services Industry
Best product I've seen for a smaller enterprise network.
Great SIEM for enterprise environments
AlienVault USM is a really beneficial SIEM solution.
Great tool for medium shops
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Centralized event and log data collection (8)8.585%
- Correlation (8)8.484%
- Event and log normalization/management (8)8.080%
- Custom dashboards and workspaces (8)7.070%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Essentials
$1,075
Standard
$1,695
Premium
$2,595
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Security Information and Event Management is a category of security software that allows security analysts to look at a more comprehensive view of security logs and events than would be possible by looking at the log files of individual, point security tools
- 8.5Centralized event and log data collection(8) Ratings
Effectiveness of real-time centralized event and log data collection
- 8.4Correlation(8) Ratings
Correlation of logs and events to pinpoint significant threats
- 8Event and log normalization/management(8) Ratings
Ability to normalize event syntax so that logs can be compared and are machine-understandable
- 8.6Deployment flexibility(7) Ratings
Ability to tune system to maximize threat detection and minimize false positives
- 7.3Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools(5) Ratings
Integration with access control tools like Active Directory and LDAP
- 7Custom dashboards and workspaces(8) Ratings
dashboards that can be customized to meet the needs of specific groups
- 8.1Host and network-based intrusion detection(5) Ratings
Ability to detect both endpoint intrusion and network ingress detection
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is AlienVault USM?
AlienVault® Unified Security Management® (USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management in one unified platform. It is designed to combine all the essential security capabilities needed for effective security monitoring across cloud and on-premises environments, including SIEM, intrusion detection, vulnerability management, as well as continuous threat intelligence updates. The vendor states that even for resource-limited IT security teams, AlienVault USM can be affordable, fast to deploy, and easy to use. It eliminates the need to deploy, integrate, and maintain multiple point solutions in the data center.
Smart, automated data collection & analysis: USM Anywhere automatically collects and analyzes data across the attack surface, helping to quickly gain centralized security visibility without the complexity of multiple disparate security technologies.
Automated threat detection powered by AT&T Alien Labs: With threat intelligence provided by AT&T Alien Labs, USM Anywhere is updated automatically to stay on top of evolving and emerging threats, so the security team can focus on responding to alerts.
Incident response orchestration with AlienApps: USM Anywhere supports a growing ecosystem of AlienApps, enabling the user to orchestrate and automate actions towards other security technologies, able to respond to incidents quickly and easily.
AlienVault USM Features
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Features
- Supported: Centralized event and log data collection
- Supported: Correlation
- Supported: Event and log normalization/management
- Supported: Deployment flexibility
- Supported: Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools
- Supported: Custom dashboards and workspaces
- Supported: Host and network-based intrusion detection
Additional Features
- Supported: AlienVault Open Threat Exchange
AlienVault USM Screenshots
AlienVault USM Videos
AlienVault USM Competitors
AlienVault USM Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Supported Countries | Global |
AlienVault USM Downloadables
- Unified Security Management vs. SIEM: a Technical Comparison
- AlienVault USM Anywhere: Datasheet
- AlienVault Fast Facts
- AlienVault USM Anywhere: Datasheet
- Beginner’s Guide to Open Source Intrusion Detection Tools
- SIEM for Beginners: Everything You Wanted to Know About Log Management But Were Afraid to Ask
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(733)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Users have found AlienVault USM to be a valuable SIEM solution for centralizing and searching log data from a large number of network attached devices. This platform is being used for various use cases such as vulnerability management, scanning, malware detection, and monitoring malicious network traffic. It is considered a good SIEM solution for organizations new to security operational logging or those with a smaller staff and budget. The product has been praised for its integrated feature sets, including HIDS, NIDS, FIM, and security alerting capabilities. The inclusion of features like vulnerability scanning and file integrity monitoring has extended its value for organizations in the early stages of cybersecurity program development. Many users have experienced real-time alerts, enabling them to respond to security incidents and compromised passwords more quickly. Furthermore, AlienVault is used for a range of functions such as SIEM, vulnerability scanning, asset discovery, and investigations. It provides organizations with a centralized log collection site, allowing them to monitor and address new problems more effectively. The platform has been effective in helping organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements and improve SOC operations. Additionally, AlienVault is used to analyze network traffic, Windows Event Logs, and other security events, helping organizations improve network security and protect their customers. It solves security challenges related to device and software visibility, monitoring for anomalous events, and ensuring patch management. Users appreciate the simplicity of deployment and the robustness of the interface. The support team is highly responsive and knowledgeable.
AlienVault USM Anywhere is used by organizations to easily identify security incidents happening across their infrastructure and comply with PCI-DSS compliance requirements. MSSPs utilize AlienVault USM Anywhere to provide their customers with best-in-class threat monitoring and response services. It is also used to monitor cloud environments, scanning and alerting for any known vulnerabilities or activity on servers. AlienVault helps organizations with auditing purposes by monitoring cloud permissions and changes to security. Additionally, it is deployed to customers for monitoring and is used by NSOCs to monitor their networks. AlienVault has been implemented across organizations, covering server assets and providing granular logging on systems and networks. It helps in raising alarms/alerts and mitigating network-related activities. AlienVault collects and alerts on network and system activity across the entire organization, making it easy to filter for important data. The product centralizes log data and helps perform vulnerability analysis and threat detection. It assists in security patching and monitoring within AWS environments. Users appreciate the ease of use and configuration of the cloud-based panel. AlienVault is implemented and managed for clients as a recommended SIEM solution, collecting and normalizing logs from various data sources. It is used throughout organizations to gain insight into network and server events, manage and correlate logs, and recognize anomalous activity. Users have been able to set up alerts for specific events and policies, effectively managing systems and alerts in place, monitoring multiple client environments, and identifying issues that clients may have missed.
AlienVault USM Anywhere is praised for its cost-effectiveness compared to other SIEM solutions on the market. Users appreciate its threat intelligence capabilities, ease of use, user-friendly interface, and simplicity of deployment. The built-in correlation rules require minimal setup and provide high-quality results. Asset management and scanning features help users stay on top of monitoring assets, including dynamic and static asset lists. The integration of OTX into USM Anywhere allows for up-to-date threat intelligence and pulse subscriptions.
The software plays a crucial role in monitoring and alerting when anomalies occur, aiding in threat detection, compliance management, log collection, and vulnerability scanning. It helps organizations stay up to speed on new vulnerabilities and supports agile business initiatives by aiding analysts in identifying cyber threats and providing access to threat cross-referencing data. AlienVault USM Anywhere is deployed to monitor AWS cloud environments, attain compliance, identify threats, and facilitate auditing of non-emergency configuration changes and vulnerability monitoring.
Overall, AlienVault USM Anywhere provides centralized security monitoring, incident response capabilities, compliance reporting features, vulnerability assessment tools, real-time SIEM functionality, as well as asset discovery and user activity monitoring capabilities. It has been widely adopted across various industries for enhancing security posture and gaining comprehensive visibility into network activities.
Based on user recommendations, AlienVault USM receives the following common recommendations:
-
AlienVault USM is recommended for cost-conscious companies and small to medium businesses due to its affordability and effectiveness. Users find it to be a great tool for analyzing and reacting to threats, offering excellent value for the price.
-
Users suggest exploring alternative SIEM choices and discussing functionality and configuration requirements. Logrhythm is mentioned as a possible alternate SIEM choice, especially for high-end functionality needs. It is advised to compare features and select the SIEM system that offers the best cost for desired features.
-
To maximize the experience with AlienVault USM, users recommend taking advantage of training opportunities provided by AlienVault. Joining official training sessions allows users to learn best practices from other users and gain comprehensive knowledge of the product. Users also recommend utilizing forums, support, webinars, and videos offered by AlienVault to enhance understanding and achieve optimal results.
Overall, AlienVault USM is regarded as a cost-effective solution suitable for organizations with data privacy and security priorities. The product's flexibility, community-created intelligence, and continual improvement are also highlighted by users. While some mention areas for improvement, such as support stability and module quality, the general consensus is that AlienVault USM delivers reliable security enhancements and cost savings.
Attribute Ratings
- 7.2Likelihood to Renew18 ratings
- 6.4Availability3 ratings
- 7.3Performance3 ratings
- 6.7Usability34 ratings
- 7.3Support Rating25 ratings
- 8.3Online Training6 ratings
- 4.5In-Person Training1 rating
- 6.4Implementation Rating38 ratings
- 8Configurability3 ratings
- 6.3Product Scalability3 ratings
- 7.3Ease of integration3 ratings
- 8.2Vendor pre-sale3 ratings
- 7.6Vendor post-sale3 ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 177)- Asset discovery.
- Real-time threat detection.
- Centralized log management.
- Provides actionable insights into emerging threats.
- Intrusion detection.
- Enhancing user interface intuitiveness.
- Granular customization options for alerts and reporting.
- Integration with third-party tools and expanding support for emerging threat intelligence sources would be beneficial since the alien app only supports a few.
Empowering Security Zenith with Unified Vigilance.
- Unified Security Monitoring and Threat Detection.
- Integrated Incident Response.
- Compliance Management and Reporting.
- User Interface and Ease of Use.
- Customization and Flexibility.
- Enhanced Automation and Orchestration.
will I continue to use USM, Yes I would
- Investigations
- Event collection and alerting
- correlation rules
- N/A
- CBT training
- training
MSSP Review
- Threat intelligence look-ups
- Asset management
- Vulnerability scanning
- Better UI/workflow for alarms
- Better alarm management (add notes/set status)
- UX/UI responsive and easy to navigate.
- Covers wide variety of systems and devices.
- Ease of getting sensors up and running.
- More simplified dashboards would help not overwhelm new users.
- Use more industry-standard terms for items.
- Tech support that actually reads your questions prior to replying with canned responses.
- Update their KBs to reflect real-world scenarios. We've ran across several places where NxLog's settings in the KB were incorrect and support had no idea, kept telling us that we were wrong despite demonstrating to them the correct settings.
- Identifies possible spurious identify (Windows AD) changes and manipulation.
- Identifies installation of possible malware.
- Analyzed all activities and filters for only those with a potential negative security impact.
- Closing an Investigation does not close the attached alarms.
- Vulnerability Scanning interfaces/process is complicated to use.
- Vulnerability Scanning allows far too many assets to be specified at once, resulting in timeouts and ambiguous results.
1) Logging aggregation and actionable insights using log correlation.
2) Threat hunting & intel.
3) Vulnerability management and validation of our separate patch automation software.
4) Security orchestration.
5) Asset discovery and inventory management.
- Log Correlation: The engineers at Alienvault/AT&T Cybersecurity have included a great integrated rule set (which continues to grow) to save analysts time on combing through logs and instead executing threat hunts, investigations, and remedial activities.
- Single pane-of-glass for all security activities from the convenience and efficiency of a SaaS web console, being that USM has deep integrations with over a dozen major software platforms (Office 365, GSuite, ZScaler, Box, etc.) and what they call plugins which interpret log and SIEM data from hundreds of vendors and platforms like Meraki, CrowdStrike, Aruba switches and AP's, etc.
- Great value! You can pay the same or more for other big name SIEM vendors that offer less features than this platform. Plus, even if you begin ingesting too much log data, you can filter specifics types of logs (for example, ones that have no impact to security) to bring data ingestion in line with your subscription level. The onboarding team did a great job in right-sizing our subscription plan, so this hasn't been a problem.
- Vulnerability scanning is currently done by authentication into the host over the network, even when the AlienVault USM agent is installed on an endpoint. It would be nice to have near-real-time vulnerability information provided via the agents. This would also delete the need for specially-configured remote-access admin service accounts on endpoints, which is just another account that has to be administered, namely password management and auditing for potential abuse and compromise.
- Endpoint agent support for ARM architecture is just starting to get going -- wide availability across Linux and MS Windows/Server platforms won't be available until possibly circa mid-2021. Fortunately, at least general asset scan info, authenticated vulnerability scans, etc. still provide a good deal of security inspection into these devices.
- Making some UI settings persist across logins on the web console is still lacking. Would also be nice to change a "detailed view" to icons/thumbnails/tiles. UI is very efficient in some aspects but frustrating in others.
A MSP and especially MSSP would do well with this while organizations that pay for MSSP services might not need AlienVault USM.
One of the best SIEMs out there
- Easy intergration using APIs
- Bespoke alarm configuration
- OTX database
- Needs to be fine tuned to get any valuable insight
- Requires alot of resourses when running in VMs
- Cost makes it hard to sell to smaller buisnesses
The system may slow down considerably when a large number of events/logs are fed in the dashboard, so ensure there is enough storage each month.
AlienVault USM anywhere
- Authenticated vulnerability assessment
- Authenticated asset discovery
- Incident response
- Log correlation
- Ability to do an external vulnerability assessment.
- User training awareness through the console for administrators to educate users.
- Allow more remediation options for administrators to endusers.
AlienVault is amazing
- Simple UI
- Easy to use, even if you are not used to it
- It makes everything simpler to monitor.
- Difficult to get the files in the forensic area
- The investigations could be more user-friendly, or it could apply some AI to be quicker.
AlienVault USM for Investigation Efficiency
- AlienVault offers Rule Creation which helps in testing out new implementations such as alarm suppression, event suppression, etc.
- AlienVault is easy to navigate. At first, I was kinda confused watching my teammates use it but the more I spend my time with AlienVault the more I appreciate its features.
- For me, I really appreciate the filters. I can filter out events specifically, which reduces time spent on looking for a particular event.
- I think adding multiple events in the investigation would really help.
- When opening an alarm, I hope we could just open the events on another tab directly.
AlienVault USM Review
AlienVault USM is the best in 3 categories compared to other tools on the market:
1. cost - traditional SIEM solutions include license, implementation costs, and renewal costs and additional training costs. Enterprise should consider SIEM as long-term investments in overall cybersecurity.
2. poor correlation rules - one SIEM problem enterprise faces is failing to maintain proper event correlation information. This solution works on threat intelligence to potentially detect threats.
3. ease of use - complexity remains one of the most commonly referenced SIEM problems. This SIEM solution possesses a user interface that works best for an IT security team and environment.
- Correlation Directives - USM has 3000+ default directives, which reduces time and man-power.
- SOC building is much quicker and can be complete in 3 months, which is very difficult with other tools that are currently in the market.
- Yearly subscription of USM product is equal to 3-4 months of others currently in market
- OTX pulse is the world's biggest forum, which helps in threat hunting and management.
- Less involvement of man-power and cost
- Raw log feature is a little slow with limited features
- Very few, infrequent updates
- Backup log is not effective and not easy
- Storage issues
AlienVault USM is less appropriate: HIDS disconnection sometimes, backup, updates will face and restore of logs might be big trouble.
AlienVault USM is quite cost effective.
- Ability to identify issues
- Reduces workload
- No auto-investigation
- Multitasking ability
AlienVault USM Review
- It does a great job of correlating the traffic that it sees and compares it to Open Threat Exchange.
- It's easy to read and set-up.
- When looking at events from a destination IP, the USM doesn't show you the total number of these until you find the last page. It just says "XXXX of 4,000,000".
AlienVault USM is good overall
- Fast and inexpensive.
- Easy to deploy.
- Tedious in customizing rules.
- Filters are hard to use.
The most approachable threat management system!
- With the Open Threat Exchange, AlienVault USM Anywhere is able to quickly identify emerging indicators of compromise and alert on threats as they arise.
- We've found the improvements in the authenticated vulnerability scanning engine to reduce the number of false positives and increase the integrity of vulnerability reports.
- Speed of deployment is a strength, particularly with the AlienVault agent which utilizes os query to collect typically important data.
- Alien apps provide us with the ability to integrate third party security packages and swiftly take action on alarms.
- More Alien app integrations with emerging EDR solutions would be useful.
- A catalogue of commonly filtered events would make on-boarding much quicker and easier.
AlienVault USM Anywhere
- AlienVault USM is simple and easy to deploy. Sensors can be deployed in as little as 15 minutes through the setup wizard.
- The USM UI is easy to understand. I've trained multiple analysts who are able to perform their duties on their first day, in part because of USM Anywhere's ease of use.
- Top-notch built-in compliance templates and reporting features.
- Filtering using built-in search statements is difficult to pick up and run with.
- When creating custom rules for reports, there can be too many options, and often have little use for the task at hand.
- You sometimes need product-specific knowledge, like AlienVault field names, to find the information you're after.
USM Anywhere is well suited to mid-size enterprise environments operating in the cloud. USM Anywhere is also well suited to enterprises whose operations teams require easy deployment and management. Last, USM Anywhere is considered a highly affordable option compared to competitors.
USM Anywhere lags competitors in several areas, such as application monitoring, database monitoring, and integrations with third-party solutions such as cloud access security brokers (CASB), DAM, DAP, and DLP.
AlienVault USM Anywhere Review
- Easy to Install
- Cloud Alert Console
- Relevancy of Data/Alerting
- Adding additional plugins and applications can be difficult
- Extensive filtering required to streamline event collection
AlienVault USM for Small Business
- It's a decent log aggregator.
- Does correlation between events well, if set up correctly.
- Control on attribute mapping within USM Anywhere or fully disclose the mappings between ingested raw logs and attributes those values map to, in order to be searchable, and give power to the end user to create meaningful alerts and queries for the right content.
- Notifications for alerts tend to lack the essentials to make a determination off of the email. Often times alerts within cloud products are benign and part of the user experience and behavior, but get classified as violations, because they meet the criteria of equivalent alerts that are actionable.
Cost effective and easy to use
- Easy to set up/use
- Cost-effective
- Interface is slow and quirky
- Lacks functionality compared to other products
- Documentation (both troubleshooting and informative) is lacking detail
- Ease of use also has downfalls in that when detailed information is needed it's harder to obtain when investigating/troubleshooting
- Alienvault USM is THOROUGH. We have a highly integrated workspace that's most SAAS, and I monitor those integrations and their security with AV. If I am trying to track the uptime of a laptop, I don't go to VPN or our Directory Services... I go to AV.
- As I mentioned before, we use Sophos to protect our laptops. If a questionable file shows up on someones laptop, I hear about it from AlienVault before I hear about it from our Sophos service.
- The OTX Pulse feature is a built-in feature that lets you subscribe to industries and you are notified about new threats that affect that industry on a daily basis. The pulse alerts are added to your AV watchlist.
- Personally, I've wished I could purchase a service that would configure AV for my environment. I get a lot of traffic on a daily basis and I almost need to hire an analyst that just works on AV.
- Some of the filters when looking for a specific alert aren't that easy to use.
AlienVault working reliably to protect your office network.
- Through the open threat exchange, I get the latest indicators of bad actors and can, on the other hand, add my own indicators if I feel something is missing.
- Filter-/Alarm-rules are easy to set up, so I can distinguish the important bits from noise in the logs
- Deploying the agents is very easy through the provided PowerShell scripts.
- Setting up a working stream of the windows-event-log (not using local agents) seems impossible, and AlienVault's support wasn't very helpful in this matter. We finally decided to drop this (it ran for a while, then stopped for no apparent reason, seemingly a problem with certificates) and use local agents instead.
- Sometimes agents don't update themselves, and it's hard to diagnose what causes this.
- Also, the updater of the sensor-appliances doesn't seem to run very reliably. From time to time I have to re-install the sensor-appliance, as it doesn't want to update itself.
My Experience using AlienVault
- Threat Detection
- Scanning for Vulnerabilities in servers
- Event handling
- Integration with other product like Google Suite to create security reports.
- When handling alarms, I'd like to be able to select all the resulting alarms at once after filtering and not by groups of 100 like it's possible now.
- I think filtering could be improved in the Alarms and Events sections.
Good for startups
It is primarily used by the security team.
- integration with the cloud providers
- ability to manage big log files
- threat intelligence
- support is not so great
- plugins are not always up to date
A very satisfied customer
- Scanning our servers for vulnerabilities.
- Monitoring our infrastructure for any changes to our security.
- Monitoring our infrastructure for any unusual activity on the servers or attacks.
- The cloud formation template uses an older instance type and should be updated.
- Some of the settings are a little had to find.