SECURITY ATLAS / EVALUATION BRIEF Zeek Research reviewed: 2026-10-18 https://atlasofsecurity.com/landscape/vendors/zeek/ THE ATLAS TAKE Zeek is an excellent candidate when the requirement is a transparent network telemetry engine and the team can build the surrounding operating stack. Its structured protocol records and connection identifiers make investigation mechanics directly inspectable. Atlas would select it deliberately as a building block: collection, storage, detection, case handling and on-call response still need owners. Comparing it with a managed NDR platform requires including those responsibilities. The useful proof of value demonstrates reliable records and a reproducible investigation, rather than counting free software as a completed security operation. SCOPE Zeek alone is not a staffed service or a complete commercial NDR console. Operators supply deployment, storage, search, detection content, access controls and case handling. Corelight’s commercial products are separate from the open-source project. WORTH A LOOK WHEN Technical teams building network evidence pipelines, custom analysis or practical investigation skills. THINK TWICE WHEN The buyer needs an included hosted investigation console, managed detection or a staffed response service. IMPLEMENTATION 1. Start with authorized captures Use a known small packet capture to establish expected connection and protocol records before live collection. 2. Design the data pipeline Choose log transport, retention, access control and storage monitoring appropriate to the traffic volume. 3. Own upgrades and detections Pin analysis versions and scripts, retain representative captures and verify meaningful changes against the same known evidence. OPERATING REALITY The operator owns capture quality, resource sizing, updates, script changes and downstream storage. Network traffic can produce sensitive records and high volume, so retention and access controls need design. Detection rules and analyst workflow also remain separate work; a healthy Zeek process does not establish that anyone will notice an important event. COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS The open-source engine avoids a commercial engine subscription, but infrastructure and skilled operations remain real costs. A hosted UI, enterprise sensor or managed service is a separate purchase and architecture. - Capture hardware and compute capacity - Log transport, search and retention infrastructure - Engineering, detection maintenance and analyst coverage EVALUATION PLAN / PROPOSED TESTS, NOT COMPLETED RESULTS 1. Analyze a small known packet capture Acceptance evidence: Retain version, command context and expected connection records. Owner: __________ Pass criterion: __________ Observed result: __________ Evidence location: __________ 2. Correlate a connection with a protocol record Acceptance evidence: Show identifiers and timestamps supporting the relationship. Owner: __________ Pass criterion: __________ Observed result: __________ Evidence location: __________ 3. Introduce controlled capture loss in a lab Acceptance evidence: Explain the resulting evidence gap and monitoring signal. Owner: __________ Pass criterion: __________ Observed result: __________ Evidence location: __________ QUESTIONS FOR THE VENDOR - Who operates the capture, storage and search pipeline? - Which scripts and packages are trusted and maintained? - How are packet data and logs protected and retained? EVIDENCE GAPS - Atlas has not benchmarked capture capacity or built an operated Zeek service here. - Confirm parser coverage and resource requirements for the intended release. SOURCES About Zeek (Documentation) https://docs.zeek.org/en/current/about/index.html Zeek quick start guide (Documentation) https://docs.zeek.org/en/current/quickstart.html Zeek connection-log reference (Documentation) https://docs.zeek.org/en/current/reference/logs/conn.html Use synthetic fixtures in an authorized environment. Agree rollback and acceptance criteria before enforcement. Documentation research and Atlas analysis. Independent hands-on effectiveness, effort, and complete price remain unassessed.