Part 3 of our 3-part series on ensuring SIEM effectiveness
Your SIEM might be catching everything—but is it catching what matters?
In Part 1 of this series, we shared the hidden costs of poor SIEM service. Part 2 dug deeper into how excessive data ingestion clogs your SIEM with irrelevant noise. Now, we’re turning our attention to one of the most overlooked contributors to SIEM failure: generic detections.
If your SIEM provider is relying on out-of-the-box detection logic, you’re not operating a detection engine—you’re running a checkbox system. One that might pass compliance audits but fails when real threats slip through the cracks.
The illusion of security: when detections aren’t built for you
Most managed SIEM providers activate the same pre-packaged detection rule sets for every client. It’s fast. It’s easy. But it’s also dangerous.
These “plug-and-play” rules are built to satisfy the lowest common denominator across industries and environments. While they may help you stand up a SIEM quickly, they create a false sense of protection by failing to account for the specific risks that matter to your business.
As Jonathan Ferrigno, Director of Cyber Response at Digital Hands, puts it:
“Customers don't receive a lot of guidance from their security partner during SIEM setup. No one says, ‘Here’s what actually matters in your environment.’ Instead, they turn on the defaults and leave it at that.”
That hands-off approach leaves you exposed.
What happens when you rely on generic rules?
Visibility gaps, stale alerts, and broken workflows
Detections are the brains of your SIEM. When they’re poorly designed—or worse, untouched from the vendor default—you lose critical visibility. What’s normal behavior in one environment might be a red flag in another. Generic rules don’t know the difference.
These one-size-fits-all detections also fail to evolve. Without ongoing tuning, they quickly become outdated—leading to an increase in false positives, missed signals, and ineffective automated responses. Instead of improving your security posture, your SIEM becomes a source of noise.
And as explored in Part 2 of this series, relying on default rules—even with the same log sources—rarely yields the same value across customers.
Ferrigno explains:
“All vendors have their own rule libraries. They are developed for the lowest common denominator in that every single customer that buys that SIEM is going to get the exact same value out of these rules. In a perfect world, that’d be great. But the truth of the matter is... customers vary wildly, even if they have the same log sources.”
The real cost: analyst burnout and reactive security
Default logic doesn’t just flood your SIEM—it drains your team. When analysts are buried in alerts that don’t matter, they become desensitized to the system altogether. Even high performers shift from proactive threat hunting to passive triage.
Over time, that alert fatigue takes a toll: lower morale, higher turnover, and a culture of reaction instead of readiness. It’s not just an operations issue—it’s a people issue.
What an effective detection strategy actually looks like
At Digital Hands, we treat custom detection rule development as a continuous process—not a set-it-and-forget-it task. A high-fidelity detection strategy balances visibility, precision, and context through three foundational practices:
A layered rule design
We don’t stop at vendor-supplied rules. We validate them in your environment, build custom detections based on your unique risk profile, and leverage intelligence gathered from similar customers and industries to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Continuous refinement
Our team regularly reviews your detection logic based on real-world outcomes, false positive trends, evolving threat intelligence, and system changes. If your business evolves, your detections should too.
Comprehensive threat coverage
We map detection logic to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK to ensure full lifecycle visibility—from initial access to data exfiltration. Every alert we escalate includes the context analysts need to act: behavioral anomalies, IP reputation, associated timelines, and prioritized response guidance.
Why the human element still matters
Technology alone isn’t enough. Without experienced cybersecurity professionals continuously tuning detections, even the best SIEM platform can generate more noise than insight.
That’s why we pair custom detection rule development with expert oversight. Our security team understands how to translate business context into detection logic—creating signal, not clutter.
Is it time to rethink your detection strategy?
If your managed SIEM provider isn’t offering customized detections or is simply activating default rules without adapting them to your environment, it may be time to reassess whether you’re truly getting the coverage you need—or just surface-level security.
Ask yourself:
- Are our detections customized to our environment?
- Do we receive alerts with enough context to respond quickly?
- How often are our rules reviewed and updated?
- Are our detections mapped to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK?
- Is our team spending more time on false positives than real threats?
If you’re unsure or unhappy with any of those answers, you deserve better from your SIEM partner.
Let’s build a smarter detection strategy
It starts with a conversation. In just 15 minutes, a Digital Hands security expert can walk through your current strategy and pinpoint where generic rules may be creating risk, cost, or both.
Schedule your free SIEM consultation
