SEC04-BP03: Correlate and enrich security alerts
Correlate security alerts and findings to identify patterns and reduce noise. Enrich security alerts with contextual information to help security teams prioritize and respond to incidents more effectively. For example, correlate multiple failed login attempts from the same IP address, or enrich alerts with information about the affected user or resource.
Implementation guidance
Security alert correlation and enrichment transforms raw security events into actionable intelligence. By combining related alerts and adding contextual information, security teams can better understand the scope and severity of potential threats, reduce false positives, and respond more effectively to genuine security incidents.
Key steps for implementing this best practice:
- Implement alert correlation mechanisms:
- Define correlation rules based on common attack patterns
- Group related alerts by time, source, destination, or attack type
- Implement statistical correlation to identify anomalies
- Use machine learning for advanced pattern recognition
- Create correlation rules for multi-stage attacks
- Enrich alerts with contextual information:
- Add asset information (criticality, owner, location)
- Include user context (role, department, access patterns)
- Append threat intelligence data
- Add network topology and segmentation information
- Include compliance and regulatory context
- Implement automated alert prioritization:
- Define severity scoring based on multiple factors
- Consider asset criticality in prioritization
- Factor in user privilege levels
- Include threat intelligence reputation scores
- Implement dynamic scoring based on current threat landscape
- Create correlation timelines:
- Build chronological views of related events
- Implement attack chain reconstruction
- Show progression of security events
- Include pre and post-incident context
- Visualize attack patterns and techniques
- Implement noise reduction techniques:
- Filter out known false positives
- Implement alert suppression for maintenance windows
- Use whitelisting for approved activities
- Implement adaptive thresholds based on baselines
- Create exception handling for legitimate business activities
- Enable collaborative investigation:
- Implement case management for correlated alerts
- Enable annotation and collaboration features
- Create investigation workflows and playbooks
- Implement knowledge sharing mechanisms
- Track investigation progress and outcomes
Implementation examples
Example 1: Alert correlation using Amazon EventBridge and Lambda
Example 2: EventBridge rules for alert correlation
Example 3: CloudWatch dashboard for correlated alerts
AWS services to consider
Benefits of correlating and enriching security alerts
- Reduced alert fatigue: Fewer, more meaningful alerts through correlation and noise reduction
- Improved threat detection: Better identification of complex, multi-stage attacks
- Faster incident response: Enriched context enables quicker understanding and response
- Enhanced prioritization: Risk-based scoring helps focus on the most critical threats
- Better investigation efficiency: Correlated timelines and context speed up investigations
- Reduced false positives: Contextual information helps distinguish real threats from benign activities
- Improved security posture: Better understanding of attack patterns and organizational vulnerabilities