Purpose -Security information management systems (SIMs) have been providing a unified distributed platform for the efficient management of security information produced by corresponding mechanisms within an organization. However, these systems currently lack the capability of producing and enforcing response policies, mainly due to their limited incident response (IR) functionality. This paper explores the nature of SIMs while proposing a set of requirements that could be satisfied by SIMs for

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... he efficient and effective handling of security incidents. Design/methodology/approach -These requirements are presented in a high-level architectural concept and include policy visualization, system intelligence to enable automated policy management, as well as, data mining elements for inspection, evaluation and enhancements of IR policies. Findings -A primitive mechanism that could guarantee the freshness and accuracy of state information that SIMs provide in order to launch solid response alarms and actions for a specific incident or a series of incidents is proposed, along with a role based access control administrative model (ARBAC) based on a corporate model for IR. Basic forensic and trace-back concepts that should be integrated into SIMs in order to provide the rich picture of the IR puzzle are also examined. Practical implications -The support of policy compliance and validation tools to SIMs is also addressed. Originality/value -The aforementioned properties could greatly assist in automating the IR capability within an organization.