CISA released comprehensive guidance documents on May 27, 2025, specifically designed to assist cybersecurity practitioners in implementing Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms.
Developed in collaboration with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) and other international partners, this technical guidance suite addresses the growing need for standardized approaches to threat detection and incident response automation across enterprise environments.
The guidance suite comprises three specialized documents targeting different organizational levels and technical requirements.
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The Implementing SIEM and SOAR Platforms: Practitioner Guidance provides detailed technical specifications for procurement, establishment, and maintenance phases, including specific recommendations for data lake architectures and multi-source correlation capabilities.
SIEM & SOAR Guide For Cyber Security Practitioners
A complementary Priority Logs for SIEM Ingestion: Practitioner Guidance document offers granular direction on log source prioritization, covering Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools, Windows/Linux operating systems, and cloud network devices.
The practitioner-focused documentation emphasizes critical technical considerations such as log normalization, collection coverage, and the distinction between log centralization versus log analysis.
Security teams can leverage specific EventCode classifications, such as Windows EventCode=4624 for successful logons, to develop baseline detection rules and identify anomalous authentication patterns.
The guidance specifically addresses SIEM architecture patterns and pre-processing methods, including source log separation, replication point pre-processing, and optimized SIEM ingestion workflows.
The guidance acknowledges significant technical hurdles that practitioners must navigate during SIEM/SOAR deployment.
Data normalization presents a primary challenge, as organizations must standardize log formats from diverse sources, including domain controllers, firewalls, and cloud APIs.
The documentation warns against premature automation deployment, emphasizing that SOAR platforms should only implement automated response functions after SIEM detection accuracy has been validated through penetration testing and red team exercises.
Technical & Cost Challenges
Cost considerations scale dramatically with data ingestion volumes, particularly for organizations generating terabytes of priority logs daily.
The guidance recommends implementing data tiering strategies with hot and cold storage configurations to manage retention requirements while controlling operational expenses.
Technical teams must also address compliance frameworks, with log retention periods ranging from 70 to 200 days to support incident investigation timelines.
CISA’s practitioner guidance outlines eleven best practice principles spanning procurement through maintenance phases.
Key technical recommendations include selecting SIEM products with data lake architectures, implementing correlation engines capable of processing multiple data sources simultaneously, and establishing comprehensive baseline measurements of business-as-usual network activity.
The guidance emphasizes developing standardized log collection protocols and integrating SIEM platforms into existing enterprise architecture frameworks.
For SOAR implementation, practitioners should focus on artifact-based playbook development, categorizing integration commands into functional groups such as enrichment, containment, and remediation.
Technical teams can leverage APIs for automated responses while maintaining human oversight capabilities for complex threat scenarios.
Organizations implementing these platforms must invest in specialized training programs beyond initial technology procurement, as effective deployment requires expertise in query languages, playbook development, and integration protocols.
The guidance positions these platforms as foundational components for achieving faster mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) metrics aligned with CISA’s Cybersecurity Performance Goals.
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