diff --git a/salt/soc/defaults.yaml b/salt/soc/defaults.yaml
index ca9d2c6a1..d1d89d812 100644
--- a/salt/soc/defaults.yaml
+++ b/salt/soc/defaults.yaml
@@ -1399,7 +1399,7 @@ soc:
           autoUpdateEnabled: true
           communityRulesImportFrequencySeconds: 86400
           communityRulesImportErrorSeconds: 300
-          customRulesets: ''
+          customRulesets:
           failAfterConsecutiveErrorCount: 10
           communityRulesFile: /nsm/rules/suricata/emerging-all.rules
           denyRegex: ''