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Sigma Rules for Detection Engineers

Write a detection once. Run it on every SIEM.

A detection tied to one SIEM's query language dies when you change platforms, and the same logic has to be rewritten by hand for every backend you run. Sigma is the vendor-neutral format that fixes this: you write a rule once in a small YAML language, and convert it to Splunk, Microsoft, or Elastic without rewriting it. This course teaches the full craft, from rule anatomy and detection logic through writing rules that survive production, converting them across backends, and correlating across events, to validating and shipping a maintained detection library.

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Your subscription also includes the Practice Hub: graded scenarios, forensic cases, query drills and the response playbooks.
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What you'll be able to do

✓Read a threat for the behavior worth detecting and write it as a Sigma rule with correct anatomy, logsource, detection logic, and ATT&CK tags
✓Compose detection logic with selections, filters, modifiers, and the condition, controlling precedence so a rule matches exactly what you intend
✓Write rules that survive production: durable against evasion, tuned against noise, with an honest false-positive profile and the right level and status
✓Convert one rule to Splunk, Microsoft, and Elastic with sigma-cli, and read each output to confirm the fields, event source, and logic survived
✓Detect multi-event patterns no single rule can see with the four correlation types, from brute force and password spray to kill-chain sequences
✓Validate a rule against data before it ships, and manage a maintained, version-controlled rule library through its lifecycle
SEC408 | Advanced tier | 5 modules across 4 phases | 8–10 hours at your own pace | 8 CPE credits | Updated July 2026
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Course overview

Sigma Rules for Detection Engineers teaches you to write detection rules that are portable across SIEMs and good enough to run in production. You start from the rule model and detection-logic language, learn to write rules that survive a noisy real environment, convert them to any backend, extend them with correlation for the attacks a single event cannot show, and validate and ship them as a maintained library. Learn how to:

✓ Write Sigma rules with correct anatomy, logsources, detection logic, modifiers, and ATT&CK tags
✓ Make rules survive production: durable against evasion, tuned against noise, with an honest false-positive profile
✓ Convert one rule to Splunk, Microsoft, and Elastic with sigma-cli, and verify each output
✓ Detect multi-event patterns with correlation: brute force, password spray, and kill-chain sequences
✓ Validate a rule against data before it ships and manage it through a version-controlled lifecycle

By the end you can take a threat from a report to a deployed, validated detection that runs on whichever SIEMs your organization uses.

Who this course is for

You are a detection engineer, SOC analyst, or threat hunter who consumes Sigma rules from the community repository but wants to author your own, debug a conversion that fails, and write rules good enough to run in production. Anyone building a portable detection capability across more than one SIEM belongs here. The course is self-contained, every concept explained at first use, so an experienced reader can move fast and a newer one is never left behind. It is for you if you want to:

✓ Author your own Sigma rules instead of only consuming rules others wrote
✓ Write detections once and run them on whichever SIEM your organization uses
✓ Understand why a conversion produces an empty query, and fix the field or pipeline behind it
✓ Detect threshold, spray, and sequence attacks that no single-event rule can catch

What you'll learn

By the end of Sigma Rules for Detection Engineers you will be able to:

✓ Read a threat for the behavior worth detecting and express it as a Sigma rule
✓ Compose detection logic with selections, filters, and modifiers, controlling precedence so a rule matches exactly what you intend
✓ Choose durable detection traits over brittle ones so a rule catches variants and survives an attacker's changes
✓ Tune a rule against real noise and document its false-positive profile, level, and status
✓ Convert a rule to KQL, SPL, and Elastic with sigma-cli, and read each output to confirm the fields, event source, and logic survived
✓ Write correlation rules across the four types: event_count, value_count, temporal, and temporal_ordered
✓ Validate a rule with a two-sided test against data and keep it working through edits with regression tests
✓ Manage a version-controlled rule library and ship detections through their lifecycle

Key course takeaways

✓ The craft to write a Sigma rule that is correct, durable, tuned, and portable across every major SIEM
✓ A working method for conversion: the pipeline that maps fields, what converts cleanly, what degrades, and how to verify
✓ The correlation model for detecting attacks that live in the relationship between events, not any single one
✓ The validation and lifecycle discipline that turns rule writing into a repeatable engineering practice

Things you need to know

What are the prerequisites for this course?

Basic YAML familiarity (if you have edited a config file, you have enough) and comfort reading at least one SIEM query language such as KQL or SPL. No prior Sigma experience is required. Every concept is taught at first use, and an experienced reader can skip past what they already know.

Do I need a SIEM to take this course?

No. You can write, convert, and reason about rules without a live SIEM. Where the course shows converted queries for Splunk, Microsoft, and Elastic, you can follow whichever backend you have access to, and the conversion and validation concepts apply the same way regardless of platform.

How does this relate to SEC401 (Threat Detection Engineering) and SEC407 (Detection As Code)?

This course teaches the craft of writing portable detection rules in Sigma. SEC401 teaches detection methodology and authoring in Microsoft Sentinel and KQL. SEC407 teaches the pipeline that operates a detection library at scale: CI, version control, and automated deployment. Each stands alone; together they cover authoring, portability, and operations. Neither is a prerequisite for this course.

How will the course benefit your career?

Sigma is the community standard for shareable detection rules, and the cybersecurity professionals who can author and debug them, rather than only consume them, are in demand. Because the skill is vendor-neutral, it travels with you regardless of which SIEM an employer runs, and it feeds directly into detection-as-code roles where portable rules are the input a pipeline depends on.

Usage rights and disclaimer

Course materials: Licensed for individual professional development. You may not redistribute course content or share account credentials.

Fictional environment: All scenarios use Northgate Engineering. Any resemblance to real organizations is coincidental.

Version and changelog

Current version: 1.0  |  Last updated: July 2026

July 2026, v1.0: Full course launch, rebuilt from the original Sigma skill into five teaching modules across four phases, framed by a course orientation and two reference modules. Covers the rule model and anatomy, the detection-logic language, writing rules that survive production, conversion across Splunk, Microsoft, and Elastic with sigma-cli, correlation for multi-event attacks, and validation and shipping. The student finishes able to carry a threat from a report to a deployed, validated, portable detection.

This course is actively maintained.

COURSE ASSESSMENT

End of Course Exam

Complete the course, then prove your skills under time pressure. Pass mark: 70. Earn your certificate with CPE credits.

40minutes
3phases
100points
1scenario
Take End of Course Exam

Requires 80% course completion. One random scenario per attempt. Certificate issued on pass.