Managing alerts in a Security Operations Center (SOC) is like leveling up in a video game. Low-severity alerts feel like sidequests — easy to complete, but still important. Threats escalate, though, and soon you’re facing the final boss — a critical alert that demands all hands on deck. Understanding how to classify and manage alert severity is the key to winning the cybersecurity game.
How Do You Determine Alert Severity
Determining alert severity is both an art and a science, requiring predefined criteria to ensure consistency and efficiency. These criteria include:
- Asset Criticality: Alerts involving mission-critical systems or sensitive data are generally classified as higher severity.
- Potential Impact: The potential damage, such as data loss or operational disruption, plays a key role in determining alert severity.
- Scope: Incidents affecting multiple systems or users escalate in severity.
- Threat Actor Sophistication: Known advanced threat actors typically call for a higher severity level.
- Data Sensitivity: Alerts involving sensitive or regulated data are generally treated as higher priority.
- Attack Stage: Alerts tied to later stages of the cyber kill chain, such as data exfiltration, are treated as more severe.
- Time Sensitivity: Some alerts require immediate attention to prevent escalation.
It’s important to note that these criteria should be:
- Clearly defined and documented
- Regularly reviewed and updated
- Aligned with the organization’s risk tolerance and business objectives
- Flexible enough to account for context-specific factors
By systematically analyzing these factors, SOC teams can quickly classify alerts, ensuring that critical threats are prioritized.
What are the Alert Severity Levels?
Alert severity levels are the backbone of effective alert management. They help SOC teams prioritize their time and resources by categorizing threats into four main levels: Low, Medium, High, and Critical. Each level requires a different strategy—and the stakes get higher as the severity increases.
Here is an example of a typical four tier severity classification with examples:
Low Severity
Examples:
- Single instances of malware blocked on non-critical endpoints
- Isolated policy violations (e.g., accessing blocked websites)
- Minor misconfigurations in cloud services
- Low-level port scans that were successfully blocked
Why They Matter: These alerts, while not urgent, provide opportunities to refine detection mechanisms, tune alert systems, and educate users about best practices.
Medium Severity
Examples:
- Suspicious process executions on non-critical systems
- Moderate increases in failed login attempts
- Detection of vulnerability scanning activity
- Unauthorized software installations
Why They Matter: These alerts often hint at potential threats that could escalate if not addressed. For example, a vulnerability scan might be an early indicator of an attacker probing your defenses.
High Severity
Examples:
- Multiple failed login attempts targeting privileged accounts
- Malware detection on critical servers
- Unusual outbound traffic to known malicious IP addresses
- Unauthorized changes to security configurations
Why They Matter: These alerts represent immediate risks to critical systems or sensitive data. For instance, failed logins on an admin account could signal a brute force attack or compromised credentials.
Critical Severity
Examples:
- Active breaches or unauthorized access to critical systems
- Confirmed data exfiltration
- Widespread malware outbreaks affecting multiple systems
- Detected exploitation of a critical zero-day vulnerability
Why They Matter: These are high-stakes scenarios that can cause significant operational disruptions, data loss, or regulatory non-compliance. For example, ransomware spreading through a network demands immediate containment to prevent further damage.
How Bricklayer AI Levels the Playing Field
Sorting through alerts doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Bricklayer AI uses autonomous agents to analyze, prioritize, and respond to alerts all day, every day. By automating low-severity tasks and helping your team make high-stakes decisions, Bricklayer ensures your SOC can handle anything.
Ready To Level Up?
From managing minor alerts to tackling the toughest threats, your SOC’s success depends on a streamlined, effective alert management strategy. Manage 100% of alerts, faster and more efficiently than your human team can do alone with Bricklayer’s autonomous AI team.
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