When FortiSIEM has no notification policy, incidents are logged for later review.

What happens to an incident without a defined notification policy in FortiSIEM?

• A. The incident remains active indefinitely
• B. The incident is logged and reviewed later
• C. The incident is automatically escalated
• D. The incident is cleared immediately

Answer: (B)

In FortiSIEM, if an incident occurs and there is no defined notification policy, the incident is logged for future review. This means that while the incident is not actively managed or escalated based on an immediate response protocol, it still gets recorded within the system for analysts or responsible personnel to evaluate at a later time. This allows for retrospective analysis and helps ensure that no important events are overlooked, even in the absence of a proactive notification process. This approach maintains a record of incidents for compliance and auditing purposes, enabling organizations to analyze trends over time, identify potential gaps in their security posture, and develop improved incident response strategies. While active notification can expedite response actions, logging incidents without an active policy ensures that they are not completely disregarded or lost, keeping the data available for future investigations.

Think of FortiSIEM like the security nerve center of a modern network. Alerts ping in, data flows in, and things get sorted into a story that analysts can read later. But what if there’s no clear rule about who gets told what, and when? Here’s the practical truth: in FortiSIEM, if there’s no defined notification policy, the incident is logged and reviewed later. It’s not left to rot, but it isn’t escalated into a live, hands-on response either. It’s a recording, a bookmark in the timeline you’ll come back to.

Let me explain how this plays out in real life, and why those logs matter just as much as immediate action.

What happens when there’s no notification policy?

• The incident is logged: When something triggers FortiSIEM, it creates an incident and stores the details. Time stamps, affected assets, user activity, and the context of what happened—these facts aren’t lost. They’re captured for future reference.

• No automatic escalation: Without a notification policy, there’s no built-in trigger to ping on-call staff, open a ticket, or run an automated playbook. It remains a record instead of a live task.

• Review later, not right away: Analysts can go back to examine the incident, check related events, and decide what to do. It’s like keeping a detailed diary of security events that you’re free to analyze during a quieter moment.

If you’re thinking, “Isn’t waiting to review risky?” you’re not off base. It can be. The upside is consistency and traceability; the downside is potential delay in containment. That’s the quiet tension we feel in many security operations centers: speed versus accuracy, automation versus human judgment.

Why logs matter, even when no one’s chasing them in real time

• Compliance and audits: Many industries require proof that events were captured and reviewed. A robust log trail makes audits smoother and more defendable.

• Retrospective analysis: Trends aren’t always obvious in the moment. A month or quarter later, you can spot recurring patterns, weak spots, or gaps in controls that a live response might miss.

• Forensics without panic: When the dust settles, you’ll want a precise sequence of events. Logs give you that. They’re the raw material for investigations, root-cause analysis, and improvements to your defenses.

• Evidence for improvements: If a type of incident keeps showing up, the data in FortiSIEM can guide policy changes, not guesses.

A light think-piece: the life cycle, with and without cues

Picture this: an suspicious login from an unusual location. In a system with a tight notification policy, you’d expect an alert, an on-call notification, a ticket, and possibly a rapid containment action. The clock starts ticking in real time, and the team moves in a coordinated way.

Now imagine the same event with no notification policy. The login is still logged, its details linked to the user and the asset. Analysts can review it later, compare it with other late-night anomalies, and decide if it points to a broader pattern. You get thorough documentation without the pressure of immediate escalation. Both paths have their place, but the latter is a quiet, reliable anchor for analysis—and a fail-safe if urgent notifications fail for any reason.

A practical side note: what can go wrong when there’s no alerting

• Slow containment: If everyone waits for someone to notice, a threat might carry on longer than it should.

• Backlog pressure: A steady stream of logged incidents without timely action can pile up, making it harder for teams to prioritize.

• Missed opportunities: Some incidents benefit from rapid triage and playbooks. Without them, opportunities for early remediation slip away.

• Knowledge gaps: If incidents aren’t reviewed promptly, you might miss training moments or misconfigurations that repeat.

That said, not every incident needs an emergency response. Some are low risk and better off reviewed in a controlled setting. The key is knowing which ones require attention now and which can be safely examined later.

Bringing the policy back into the loop: how to avoid the silent incident trap

If you’re responsible for FortiSIEM in a real environment, you’ll want a thoughtful notification policy. Here’s a gentle, practical path to bring in the right balance of speed and oversight:

• Define severity levels and ensure clear ownership

• Map incident severities to specific teams or individuals. For example, critical events go to the on-call pager, high-severity events land in a ticket queue, and lower-severity items spawn periodic reviews.

• Keep it simple. You don’t want a dozens of tiers that nobody can memorize. A few well-defined levels work best.

• Tie alerts to action

• Use automatic ticket creation or update in your IT service management (ITSM) system for fast visibility.

• Include context in the alerts: affected hosts, user accounts, recent changes, and related events so responders don’t have to hunt for data.

• Plan escalation paths

• Design who is notified at each level and what they should do next. This reduces the guesswork during real events.

• Include a fallback if a primary responder is unavailable. A little redundancy goes a long way.

• Integrate with existing workflows

• Connect FortiSIEM with the tools your team already uses—Slack channels, Jira, ServiceNow, or ticketing systems. The goal is to turn alerts into actions, not just sparks of worry.

• Practice with tabletop exercises

• Run light, realistic drills to test the policy, not as a punitive exercise but as a learning chance. You’ll surface gaps, train staff, and build muscle memory for the moment when it matters.

• Review and adjust

• Policies aren’t set in stone. Revisit them after incidents, after changes in the network, and after audits. A policy that doesn’t evolve is a missed chance to tighten security.

A small but helpful checklist to keep handy

• Define who gets alerted for each severity

• Decide how tickets are created and who closes them

• Set on-call rotations and escalation timelines

• Ensure FortiSIEM feeds into your ticketing or collaboration tools

• Create dashboards to monitor incident trends and response velocity

• Schedule regular reviews of incidents, not just the high-impact ones

A few digressions that still circle back to the core point

• You might wonder, what about automation and playbooks? They’re gold when you need quick containment, but they aren’t a substitute for good logging. A well-logged incident gives you the data to build better automation later. It’s a chicken-and-egg moment, and you want both sides working in harmony.

• Think about the human side: a policy should guide people, not imprison them. Clear roles, transparent expectations, and regular practice keep the team confident and calm when real events happen.

• The security world loves the latest gadget, but in the end, good data hygiene and consistent processes beat flashy features. A clear policy plus solid logging creates a stable foundation you can grow on.

A final reflection

Log, review, improve—that’s the rhythm FortiSIEM encourages when there’s no dynamic notification policy in play. It’s not the flashiest approach, but it’s incredibly reliable. Those logs become your organization’s memory bank, a traceable account of what happened, why it mattered, and how you responded. They’re not just records; they’re the breadcrumbs that guide smarter defenses, better decisions, and a stronger security posture over time.

If you’re scanning security playbooks or setting up your own SOC processes, remember this: proactive alerts are powerful, but retrospective analysis is equally vital. A well-balanced approach treats incident data as more than a snapshot—it's a living resource you can mine for trends, accountability, and continuous improvement. And yes, even when no one is immediately pinged, the incident isn’t invisible. It’s logged, it’s seen, and it’s ready for review when the moment is right. That’s the quiet strength of FortiSIEM’s disciplined logging approach.