Intelligence

What is the most important aspect of a security implementation?  Many it will say implementing devices such as firewalls and software such as malware/virus protection to protect your network.  Although this is critical to protecting your network infrastructure it's not the only thing needed to keep your network secure.

One of the most critical aspects of any security implementation is intelligence.  You have to fully understand your environment as well as the threats to your environment in order to protect it from the bad guys.  There are multiple ways to do this including following specific twitter feeds where attackers brag about exploits or viewing websites where exploits are posted.  One of the most important ways to obtain intelligence is to implement a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution.  Implementing a SIEM solution allows your organization to correlate attacks against your network and obtain valuable intelligence such as malicious IP addresses and also gives you the ability to analyze potential threats.  This allows you to gain intelligence about your network and the threats against it with the use of one solution.