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Security Event Manager
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Security Event Manager

Network Security Monitoring

with Security Event Manager

Quickly detect cyber threats and simplify compliance with network security monitoring in Security Event Manager Software

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Fully functional for 30 days
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Collect and analyze data to detect and respond to network security threats

Detect Threats
Identify Risks
Set Rules
Prepare Audits
Gain Superior Visibility

More easily detect threats across your environment

Screenshot 2025-05-09 123413.png

Network security monitoring is critical for keeping your organization safe from cyber threats. By continuously tracking and analyzing network traffic, security monitoring software helps you spot unusual activity, unauthorized access, and potential security issues before they become major problems. Centralizing and normalizing log data from your on-premises devices provides a comprehensive view of suspicious behavior, reducing the time and effort needed to analyze and respond to cyber threats. SolarWinds® Security Event Manager (SEM) is designed to be an extra pair of eyes on your network to alert you and help you act on potential threats in your environment.

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Fully functional for 30 days
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Identify the latest risks with up-to-date intelligence

Screenshot 2025-05-09 121508.png

SolarWinds SEM is designed to support lean IT operations and security teams. SEM integrates online threat feeds to identify incoming traffic from or outgoing traffic to known bad actors associated with ransomware, malware, and phishing attacks —all of which can further inform automated and human decision-making. With Security Event Manager, up-to-date threat intelligence data is added to logs and events at the event time, so the relevance of the threat intel data is associated with the time the event happened and not the query time.

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Fully functional for 30 days
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Set Rules and Respond in Real Time to Alarming Behavior

Screenshot 2025-05-14 192255.png

Effective network security monitoring lets you respond instantly to any warning signs, stopping threats before they can cause harm. SolarWinds SEM makes this easier by offering customizable rules that trigger specific actions based on your needs. These rules are crucial for catching and addressing issues like external breaches, internal misuse, and policy violations. To help you get started, SEM comes with a set of pre-configured rules, so your organization is ready to respond quickly to any potential threats.

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Fully functional for 30 days
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Prepare for Compliance Audits With Audit-Ready Reporting

Screenshot 2025-05-14 193218.png

Compliance mandates—such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, DISA, and others—require detailed event reporting and network security monitoring. Unfortunately, many network security monitoring tools are costly and too complex to deploy and manage. 

Simplify your security and compliance tool set with SolarWinds SEM. Security Event Manager is built to help demonstrate audit compliance, with hundreds of out-of-the-box reports and filters for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, ISO, NCUA, FISMA, FERPA, GLBA, NERC CIP, GPG13, DISA STIG, and more. SEM also provides the ability to create custom audit compliance reports.

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Fully functional for 30 days
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Gain Superior Visibility With SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted provides a unified approach to managing and monitoring your entire IT environment, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid networks. By integrating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted with our security products—Security Event Manager (SEM), Access Rights Manager (ARM), and Patch Manager into Security Observability—you can gain deeper insights into your network's security posture, streamline threat detection, and enhance response times.

Download Free TrialEmail Link to Trial
Fully functional for 30 days
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Get More on Network Security Monitoring Software

Do you find yourself asking…

  • What is network security monitoring software?
  • What is the difference between network monitoring and network security monitoring?
  • Why is network cybersecurity monitoring important?
  • What should you look for when choosing network security monitoring tools?
  • What are the best practices for network security monitoring?
  • How does the network monitoring software work in SolarWinds Security Event Manager?
  • Related features and tools

Network security monitoring (NSM) software is designed to detect and analyze activities that may indicate security issues, offering warnings that allow you to act quickly and protect your business from network intrusions. By collecting metrics on client-server communications, encrypted traffic sessions, and other network operations, the NSM tools can help you identify potential cybersecurity threats.

Network security monitoring software also enables traffic analysis to detect patterns and create automatic alerts and reports, facilitating faster incident response to suspicious behavior. Additionally, visualizations leveraging threat intelligence generate easy-to-understand charts and graphs, aiding admins in investigating traffic, identifying malicious activities, and troubleshooting security threats.

Network monitoring focuses on tracking the overall performance, availability, and health of a network, including metrics like bandwidth usage, latency, and uptime. Its primary goal is to ensure that network devices and connections are operating efficiently and that potential performance issues are identified and resolved.

Network security monitoring, on the other hand, specifically targets the detection and analysis of security threats within the network. It monitors activities for signs of malicious behavior, unauthorized access, and other security-related incidents. Overall, while network monitoring helps ensure smooth network operations, network security monitoring focuses on protecting the network from cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

Network cybersecurity monitoring safeguards your enterprise data—ranging from business stats to personal user information—from malicious actors. Data loss and corruption can harm network performance, end-user satisfaction, and your business reputation. Additionally, monitoring your network’s cybersecurity helps ensure other aspects, like availability, status, behavior, and component configuration, are performing well, which is crucial for improving your security posture.

It also enables you to establish processes for rapid response to security issues, gathering information on data in transit and at rest to increase your chances of detecting threats. These cybersecurity monitoring tools help anticipate user actions, both authorized and unauthorized, reducing the time needed to discover and address security breaches. Rapid detection is crucial, as cyberattacks can happen in seconds.

When choosing network security monitoring tools, consider the following key features:

  • Real-time threat detection and alerts: Ensure the tool provides instant alerts for suspicious activities, enabling you to respond quickly to potential threats.
  • Comprehensive log management: Look for tools that centralize and normalize log data from various sources, providing a clear, unified view of network activity.
  • Automated response capabilities: Choose a tool that offers customizable rules for automated actions based on predefined guidelines, helping to streamline threat response.
  • User access monitoring: Ensure the tool can monitor and manage user access rights, identifying unauthorized access and internal misuse.
  • Integration with existing systems: The tool should integrate seamlessly with other security solutions for a comprehensive security posture.

Consider these best practices for network security monitoring:

  • Manage user permissions: Restrict access to only those users who need it and assign necessary privileges to prevent malicious actions, such as file deletion or data theft. Regularly update permissions, especially when roles change, to avoid unauthorized access.
  • Ensure perimeter safety: Your network perimeter separates your LAN from the public internet. Regularly check and update firewall rules to protect your perimeter, and maintain an inventory of network devices, including personal devices, to spot potential threats.
  • Perform training and standardize protocols: Train end-users on recognizing suspicious activities and proper reporting procedures. Ensure they understand how to use network elements, maintain passwords, and follow protocols. Clearly define chains of command for responding to security alerts.
  • Monitor your network consistently: Regularly patch, implement endpoint protection, and collect logs to ensure accurate security data. Consistent IT security monitoring helps spot trends and improve intrusion detection.

SolarWinds® Security Event Manager (SEM) offers automated network monitoring that flags events in real-time through log correlation, helping you uncover actionable intelligence on cybersecurity, compliance, and daily operations. With visualization features like trees, graphs, and charts, SEM highlights critical security data, providing the context needed to make informed decisions quickly.

SEM scans your network using community-sourced threat intelligence to detect:

  • Internal communications with malicious hosts
  • Incoming network intrusions
  • Spam, denial of service attacks, and phishing attempts
  • System errors and antivirus failures
  • Intrusion detection triggers

SEM also allows you to respond rapidly by enabling/disabling accounts, detaching ransomware USB drives, and shutting down machines. It centralizes security data, providing a comprehensive view of suspicious behavior to help you address threats without delay.

Other SolarWinds tools to help monitor networks:

  • Network Configuration Manager
  • Network Performance Monitor
  • SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted & Security Observability

Related features:

  • Network Security Tool
  • Network Firewall Security Management
  • Centralized Log Management
  • Security Orchestration and Automation
  • Security Information Management

  • Network security monitoring (NSM) software is designed to detect and analyze activities that may indicate security issues, offering warnings that allow you to act quickly and protect your business from network intrusions. By collecting metrics on client-server communications, encrypted traffic sessions, and other network operations, the NSM tools can help you identify potential cybersecurity threats.

    Network security monitoring software also enables traffic analysis to detect patterns and create automatic alerts and reports, facilitating faster incident response to suspicious behavior. Additionally, visualizations leveraging threat intelligence generate easy-to-understand charts and graphs, aiding admins in investigating traffic, identifying malicious activities, and troubleshooting security threats.

  • Network monitoring focuses on tracking the overall performance, availability, and health of a network, including metrics like bandwidth usage, latency, and uptime. Its primary goal is to ensure that network devices and connections are operating efficiently and that potential performance issues are identified and resolved.

    Network security monitoring, on the other hand, specifically targets the detection and analysis of security threats within the network. It monitors activities for signs of malicious behavior, unauthorized access, and other security-related incidents. Overall, while network monitoring helps ensure smooth network operations, network security monitoring focuses on protecting the network from cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

  • Network cybersecurity monitoring safeguards your enterprise data—ranging from business stats to personal user information—from malicious actors. Data loss and corruption can harm network performance, end-user satisfaction, and your business reputation. Additionally, monitoring your network’s cybersecurity helps ensure other aspects, like availability, status, behavior, and component configuration, are performing well, which is crucial for improving your security posture.

    It also enables you to establish processes for rapid response to security issues, gathering information on data in transit and at rest to increase your chances of detecting threats. These cybersecurity monitoring tools help anticipate user actions, both authorized and unauthorized, reducing the time needed to discover and address security breaches. Rapid detection is crucial, as cyberattacks can happen in seconds.

  • When choosing network security monitoring tools, consider the following key features:

    • Real-time threat detection and alerts: Ensure the tool provides instant alerts for suspicious activities, enabling you to respond quickly to potential threats.
    • Comprehensive log management: Look for tools that centralize and normalize log data from various sources, providing a clear, unified view of network activity.
    • Automated response capabilities: Choose a tool that offers customizable rules for automated actions based on predefined guidelines, helping to streamline threat response.
    • User access monitoring: Ensure the tool can monitor and manage user access rights, identifying unauthorized access and internal misuse.
    • Integration with existing systems: The tool should integrate seamlessly with other security solutions for a comprehensive security posture.

  • Consider these best practices for network security monitoring:

    • Manage user permissions: Restrict access to only those users who need it and assign necessary privileges to prevent malicious actions, such as file deletion or data theft. Regularly update permissions, especially when roles change, to avoid unauthorized access.
    • Ensure perimeter safety: Your network perimeter separates your LAN from the public internet. Regularly check and update firewall rules to protect your perimeter, and maintain an inventory of network devices, including personal devices, to spot potential threats.
    • Perform training and standardize protocols: Train end-users on recognizing suspicious activities and proper reporting procedures. Ensure they understand how to use network elements, maintain passwords, and follow protocols. Clearly define chains of command for responding to security alerts.
    • Monitor your network consistently: Regularly patch, implement endpoint protection, and collect logs to ensure accurate security data. Consistent IT security monitoring helps spot trends and improve intrusion detection.

  • SolarWinds® Security Event Manager (SEM) offers automated network monitoring that flags events in real-time through log correlation, helping you uncover actionable intelligence on cybersecurity, compliance, and daily operations. With visualization features like trees, graphs, and charts, SEM highlights critical security data, providing the context needed to make informed decisions quickly.

    SEM scans your network using community-sourced threat intelligence to detect:

    • Internal communications with malicious hosts
    • Incoming network intrusions
    • Spam, denial of service attacks, and phishing attempts
    • System errors and antivirus failures
    • Intrusion detection triggers

    SEM also allows you to respond rapidly by enabling/disabling accounts, detaching ransomware USB drives, and shutting down machines. It centralizes security data, providing a comprehensive view of suspicious behavior to help you address threats without delay.

  • Other SolarWinds tools to help monitor networks:

    • Network Configuration Manager
    • Network Performance Monitor
    • SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted & Security Observability

    Related features:

    • Network Security Tool
    • Network Firewall Security Management
    • Centralized Log Management
    • Security Orchestration and Automation
    • Security Information Management

Simplify network security management

Security Event Manager

  • Unify and extract actionable intelligence from all your logs in real time
  • Expedite threat response against malicious IPs, accounts, applications, and more
  • Get out-of-the-box compliance reporting for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, ISO, and more
Download Free TrialEmail Link to Trial
Fully functional for 30 days
Learn More
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