Completing the Picture: How Agent-Based Testing Enhances SIEM and SOAR
Part 3 in a series
Cyber Security - The Importance of Executive Support for the Essential Eight
For many Australian organisations, investing in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platforms has become standard practice. These technologies provide the backbone for detecting threats and orchestrating response across increasingly complex environments.
But while SIEM and SOAR systems are critical to visibility and incident handling, they don’t always provide the full picture of an organisation’s cyber readiness. Detection and response are only as good as the signals they’re receiving and those signals are only as reliable as the assumptions behind them.
That’s where agent-based testing comes in.
SIEM Is Critical, But It Can’t Do Everything
SIEM platforms excel at collecting, correlating, and alerting on security events from across the network. But even the most finely tuned SIEM depends on the quality of data being ingested, and often, on pre-defined detection rules that assume systems and controls are behaving as expected.
However, gaps in log coverage, misconfigurations, missing rules, or silent failures in detection pipelines can all go unnoticed. You can’t detect what you haven’t tested.
This isn’t a flaw in SIEM, it’s simply a limitation of relying solely on passive monitoring.
Why Testing Complements Monitoring
Agent-based testing helps close this gap by actively simulating real-world cyber threats safely and systematically from within the network. These controlled tests challenge the assumptions that SIEMs are built on.
They validate whether:
- Controls are detecting and blocking threats as expected
- Alerts are triggering in line with real behaviours
- SOAR workflows are being activated properly
- The entire detection-response loop is functioning in real conditions
It’s not about replacing monitoring; it’s about making it meaningful.
Continuous Testing Feeds Better SIEM Outcomes
By incorporating regular agent-based testing into your security routine, you unlock a cycle of continuous improvement.
Testing provides direct, real-world feedback that helps:
- Refine detection rules in your SIEM
- Improve log source coverage
- Validate SOAR response playbooks
- Proactively close gaps before adversaries find them
This makes your SIEM smarter, your response faster, and your overall posture more resilient.
Closing the Assurance Loop
Boards, auditors, and regulators are no longer satisfied with compliance alone; they want evidence that security controls actually work. Agent-based testing enables this by delivering measurable, repeatable results that go beyond checklists and dashboards.
It suports:
- Proving control effectiveness
- Demonstrating incident readiness
- Informing maturity assessments
- Building confidence across technical and non-technical stakeholders
This is how organisations move from theoretical security to operational assurance.
Aligns with ACSC’s Intent
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) advocates for a maturity-based approach through frameworks like the Essential Eight, which encourage not only implementing security strategies, but validating their real-world effectiveness.
Agent-based testing is strongly aligned with this intent. It allows organisations to:
- Confirm controls are in place and working
- Measure performance over time
- Support informed reporting
- Shift from reactive to proactive risk management
This focus on active validation is central to achieving and maintaining security maturity.
Introducing Introspectus Assessor
For Australian organisations looking to embed testing into their operations without adding overhead, Introspectus Assessor provides a local, agent-based platform designed specifically to validate Essential Eight maturity and test cyber control performance in real time.
Developed and supported in Australia, Assessor integrates seamlessly into your environment, runs safe simulations across endpoints, and helps verify that your detection and response workflows are not only in place, but effective.
Whether you’re aiming to sustain a maturity level, prepare for an audit, or simply gain peace of mind, Assessor helps close the loop between what you think is happening and what’s actually happening inside your network.
Final Thought
SIEM and SOAR provide essential monitoring and response capabilities, but they don’t tell the full story. Agent-based testing completes the picture by simulating real threats and validating that defences are working as intended.
By shifting from assumption to assurance, organisations can improve outcomes, reduce risk, and stay ahead of evolving threats. Tools like Introspectus Assessor help make that process scalable, repeatable and practical.
In today’s threat landscape, knowing is good, but proving is better.