9: A practical guide to writing effective security rules

The security industry is full of great products, tools, organizations, and services, all taking very different approaches. At the forefront, perhaps, are rules-based technologies like SIEM and EDR, which have the unique advantage of bridging novel product capabilities with user-specific needs in an abstracted and intuitive manner. Elastic provides multiple features to facilitate a robust security approach, several of which are built on top of rules-based approaches.

Having a firm grasp and thorough understanding of rules enables users to maximize the value of their products, while also allowing for the most potentially contextually relevant approaches. This chapter is intended to provide general insights and guidance on developing effective rules, leveraging Elastic’s security platform for practical references.

First, we will explore an overview of the Elastic rules ecosystem and security platform to provide the necessary background before diving deeper through applied examples, where the primary focus will be on efficacy, performance, and maintainability. Finally, we will review step through some examples from the Zen of Security Rules (ZoSR) for applied perspectives of these three principles.