Somerford Associates Limited

Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) Advanced Threat Detection, Investigation and Response (TDIR) Suite

A Splunk Elite Partner for Splunk Advanced Threat Detection, Investigation and Response (TDIR) including SIEM: Enterprise Security (ES), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (Splunk SOAR), User Behaviour Analytics (Splunk UBA), Threat Intelligence Management (Splunk TIM), Mission Control and Attack Analyzer. Providing End-to-End Security Detection, Investigation and Response.

Features

• Advanced Fraud and cyber threat detection analysis with Machine Learning
• Information Assurance and security analysis
• Automate threat analysis of suspected malware and credential phishing threats
• Investigate activities associated with a potential security incident
• Risk Based Alerting - RBA
• Data-Centric Cloud Native Intelligence Management
• Simple and Scalable Security Orchestration Automation and Response
• Automated Playbooks with thousands of application integrations
• Identify and extract associated forensics for accurate and timely detections
• MITRE ATT&CK Matrix, Cyber Kill Chain Use Case Alignment

Benefits

• Enhance incident response and investigations using security data
• Collect, aggregate, de-duplicate, and prioritize threat intelligence from multiple sources
• Streamline security operations by conducting rapid investigations using ad-hoc searches
• Wide range of uses cases for SOC, SecOps and compliance
• Detect and reduce internal and external cyber threats/abuse
• Unify Security Data, Analytics and Operations
• Increase detection capabilities and optimize incident response
• Analyse ‘big data’ internet traffic and machine data
• Analyse machine data from systems with varying formats
• Exploit event sequences, alerts, risk scores and bespoke dashboards

£3,641 a licence a year

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

410732020769866

Contact

Penny Harrison
07897075103
penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: None
• System requirements:
  • Hardware non-Windows > 2x8 core 2+GHZ, 32GB RAM
  • Windows > 2x8 core 2+GHZ, 32GB RAM
  • Linux, 3.x, 4.x or 5.4.x and higher
  • Windows Server 2016 or 2019

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm excl bank holidays customers receive an initial response within one business hour
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: We provide support from priority 1 to priority 4 cases on any existing configuration or part of the platform that is in total or partial failure as well as not working as expected. We also provide configuration guidance and recommendations for use cases. Each customer receives their own Account Manager who works closely with Support and ensures that cases can be followed up. Somerfords Support desk is available as a value added service in addition to the maintenance and support purchased alongside the license.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Splunk can provide free evaluation licences. Somerford Associates will provide Professional Services to help plan and execute your deployment and offer a full catalogue of training services to support the deployment.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: The Splunk tool provides analysis and visualisation of data from various sources. The data rests at its original location and does not solely reside in Splunk. Therefore there is no need for data extraction at end of contract
• End-of-contract process: If a licence is terminated Splunk can provide Professional Services at extra cost to help the Buyer to migrate their analytic needs to another supplier.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Mobile web browser functionality is the same. Splunk Mobile App provides visualisations, alerting and interactivity to execute actions from a finger press. With the Splunk Augmented Reality app, you can create your own virtual workspace in augmented reality via your phone.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The Splunk Enterprise REST API provides methods for accessing every feature in our product. Your program talks to Splunk Enterprise using HTTP or HTTPS, the same protocols that your web browser uses to interact with web pages, and follows the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST).
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The user is able to configure dashboards, alerts, reports and underlying target data sources. Configuration can be through Splunk Web, Splunk's Command Line Interface (CLI), Splunk's REST API or directly within configuration.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Splunk Cloud sits on dedicated infrastructure scaled appropriately to each customers license size.; ; Alternatively Splunk sits in the buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider and therefore contention is under their control.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Splunk provides a monitoring console that will display information such as usage of resources, number of searches/reports by user, the types of queries they are running, and also any latency in data ingestion, parsing, or searching.
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Splunk

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Splunk's own cloud service uses logical data separation, authenticated user accounts, and industry standard hardening. Data in transit is encrypted with industry standard SSL and data at rest is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption. This service is acccredited to ISO27001. We can help the buyer to enable a similar configuration suitable for their data at rest protection.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: There are many ways that a user can export data. Splunk provides a REST API to export data. Data can be exported by the Splunk Web facility. Users can use the Command Line Interface, SDK's and data forwarding tools.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • JSON
  • Raw data
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • JSON
  • Raw data

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Splunk Cloud is considered available if you are able to log into your Splunk Cloud Service account and initiate a search using Splunk Software. Splunk continuously monitors the status of each Splunk Cloud environment to ensure the SLA of 100% uptime. In addition, Splunk Cloud monitors several additional health and performance variables.; ; Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Availability is controlled by the Buyer or their cloud provider
• Approach to resilience: Splunk handles resilience by replication of data across a cluster of Splunk Indexers across data centres. Splunk Cloud maintains a seven-day backup of data and configuration files and backups run continuously. ; ; Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Resilience is the responsibility of the Buyer or their cloud provider
• Outage reporting: Splunk provides a cloud monitoring console to monitor the health of your Splunk Cloud environment. Email alerts are also available.; ; Alternatively Splunk sits within the Buyers network or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider. Outage reporting is the responsibility of the Buyer or their cloud provider.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: The Splunk user authentication system allows the assignment of roles which provide custom permissions. The Buyer can define all roles using a list of capabilities and data access restrictions.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: No audit information available
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Schellman & Company, LLC
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 01/12/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Deployment in customers own environment
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: N/A
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: Deployment in customers own environment
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Schellman & Company, LLC
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 14/02/2023
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: Deployment in customers own environment
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • HIPAA
  • SOC 2 Type II
  • IRAP Protected
  • Shared Assessment

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Our Cloud based service uses trusted third-party validation. Auditing of our processes and policies efforts to safeguard customer data to industry standards worldwide. Working with our audit partners, SOC 2 Type 2 attestation is completed for all Splunk Cloud customer environments and ISO 27001 certification is completed for Splunk Cloud customer environments provisioned for data ingestion of over 20GB/day

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: For Splunk initiated changes, maintenance is performed at most once per month and Customers will receive notice of Routine Maintenance by email at least 48 hours in advance. You can request an alternate time within the Routine Maintenance window if required. For Customer initiated changes, the maintenance can be performed regularly. Customer's will receive email notice when such maintenance is starting and when complete.; ; Alternatively Splunk sits in the network of the Buyer or the infrastructure of their chosen cloud provider, Configuration and change management is the responsibility of the Buyer or their supplier.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We have a robust process for threats to the Splunk platform. We maintain a policy of evaluating all potential security vulnerabilities that are discovered internally or externally within two business days of discovery. We use the industry standard CVSSv2 to rate vulnerabilities. In the case of critical risk, high impact vulnerabilities, Splunk will make all reasonable effort to supply patches, assuming that patches are a viable stop-gap for customers who cannot otherwise upgrade Splunk.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Splunk monitors application and platform components of the service for potential issues. Cloud Operations staff monitor alerts and logs for issues, and log a ticket for issues that require remediation. In the event of application or data compromise affecting customer data, the customer is notified immediately and remains in contact with the remediation team until resolution.; ; The security measures of Splunk and AWS are further described in the Technical Briefing paper at https://www.splunk.com/pdfs/technical-briefs/safeguarding-customer-data-in-splunk-cloud.pdf
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Splunk maintains an incident response policy and program, with defined processes, roles and responsibilities. Customers may submit security issues through the normal support channels or any additional channels as provided in the EULA.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  As an organisation that works closely with the public sector, Somerford is keen to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the achievement of the Net Zero target of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.; ; Management and staff at Somerford have been conscious of our impact upon the environment even before the Climate Change Act was introduced, and we’ve adopted environmentally friendly practices as the business has grown. Consequently, Somerford ‘s business already has a reasonably low carbon footprint, and will continue to strive for further reductions wherever possible because this is beneficial for our business, our stakeholders and the environment.; ; We will use our influence as a value added reseller of leading edge software products and supporting professional services to select supplier-partners whose own carbon reduction philosophy and plans are aligned with ours, and who can show commitment to the Net Zero target. In practical terms, this means we participate in a carbon-net-zero supply chain in the delivery of the solutions from our supplier-partners to our customers.; ; For further details, please see our Carbon Reduction Plan online at https://www.somerfordassociates.com/carbon-reduction-policy-and-plan/

  Covid-19 recovery

  During the Covid-19 pandemic, our robust business continuity measures, prudent fiscal policy, and the benefits of a highly flexible team, meant we were well prepared for the difficulties ahead. ; ; Staff wellbeing has been at the forefront of our Covid-19 recovery plans, taking care of their physical and mental health, including;; ; * home working to avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus; * providing safe office space where staff personal circumstances dictated; * regular contact, albeit remotely, to prevent isolation; * organised e-based social events to maintain interaction; ; ; As a result we have been able to:; ; * give uninterrupted service to our customers; * move our staff to home working; * avoid compulsory redundancies and minimised furlough; * in 2020, gain an 11% increase in revenues; * continue to grow the workforce by over 10% in the same year; * take on new partners to enhance our solutions portfolio; * invest in staff education to meet future customer needs. ; ; Changes in business practices due to Covid-19 have shown that flexible work patterns can be very effective, and we’re unlikely to fully return to our previous style of working. ; ; Our solutions have also helped customers to cope with their changing work patterns too - supporting their Covid recovery by providing the infrastructure, tooling and monitoring to support their own remote, flexible and sustainable ways of working.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Somerford is a healthily growing business, and actively strives to create employment opportunities that are inclusive of all socio-economic groups. For example:; ; * 47% of our staff joined us as junior.; * 17 of our team have joined us as apprentices or graduated from our in house technical academy; * We actively participate in the Armed Forces Covenant Scheme and help to redeploy and re-skill leavers from the Armed Forces. So far, 18 staff have joined us in this way;; ; Strong technical skills are key to the delivery of services to our customers, so we’ve invested heavily in staff training, as is demonstrated by 47% of our staff starting with us as juniors.

  Equal opportunity

  Somerford is an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief or age.; ; We do not discriminate on the grounds of disability. We take particular care to respect the rights of those with disabilities, throughout all stages of recruitment and employment. We make reasonable adjustments to ensure those with disabilities are not disadvantaged in the workplace, eg. adjusting working hours or providing special equipment to help to do their job.

  Wellbeing

  Somerford is committed to promoting and supporting the wellbeing of all of its staff. We aim to create a culture which focuses on prevention of issues in the workplace that can adversely affect staff health and wellbeing, and where issues are identified, they are managed promptly before they can have a detrimental impact.; ; This includes:; * providing staff with clarity and purpose regarding their job role;; * ensuring staff have the capability, training, support and encouragement to conduct their role confidently and effectively;; * providing a physical working environment that is suitable for the work to be carried out effectively;; * encouraging staff to maintain a sensible work-life balance;; * minimising the stressful impacts of work;; * ensuring bullying and harassment have no place in the working environment;; * managing sickness and absence effectively;; * considering requests for career breaks and sabbaticals;; * providing medical assistance to staff;; * encouraging employee fitness;; * promoting dignity at work.

Pricing

• Price: £3,641 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Full capability of a Splunk Enterprise license for 60 days allowing indexing up to 500 megabytes of data per day. This can be converted to a perpetual Free license or the buyer can purchase an Enterprise license to continue using the expanded functionality designed for multi-user deployments.
• Link to free trial: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/download/sem.html?ac=sitelink_freedownload&gclid=Cj0KEQjw5YfHBRDzjNnioYq3_swBEiQArj4pdC_6Iz6y

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.