Elastic Security vs EventSentry File Monitoring

Elastic Security combines SIEM, XDR, endpoint security, and cloud security for detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber threats. Detection options include prebuilt and customizable rules, machine-learning anomaly detection, and threat hunting. Elastic Defend uses machine learning, behavioral analysis, and prebuilt rules to address endpoint threats; cloud capabilities cover cloud and Kubernetes security posture management, workload protection, and vulnerability management. Elastic Workflows can automate triage, enrichment, response, notifications, and case management. Elastic lists more than 400 prebuilt integrations and up to 1,000 total security and data-source integrations, alongside native OpenTelemetry support. The software can run on Elastic Cloud or self-managed infrastructure, with APIs and query options KQL, Lucene, and ES|QL. The free Basic plan includes SIEM, XDR, and host security analysis. Elastic Cloud Hosted and Serverless offer a 14-day free trial. Security Analytics Essentials is listed at $0.09 a month, with retention priced separately; Essentials also includes endpoint protection, while retention is priced separately at as low as $0.017 per retained GB per month. Elastic Cloud uses HTTPS for internet-facing and inter-node communications and encrypts cluster data at rest.

EventSentry File Monitoring tracks file additions and removals, size and SHA-256 checksum changes, and transaction-log tampering. It can gather digital certificates and entropy, which may help detect certain ransomware outbreaks. Changes can be logged to the Application event log with customizable severity and previous and new sizes or checksums. The current status of monitored files can be consolidated in the EventSentry database for comparisons across computers.

Notifications and integrations can go to email, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle databases, HTTP(S), Syslog, SNMP traps, and executable processes. Exported text event logs can be cryptographically signed and timestamped to help identify tampering. EventSentry says its file integrity monitoring helps with PCI requirement 11.5. The full edition is an on-premise perpetual license listed at $85 per Windows device; EventSentry Light is free for five machines. A 30-day trial is listed. The feature is listed for Linux, macOS, web, and Windows, while the detailed supported operating-system list names Windows versions from NT 4 SP6 through Server 2025.