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Archiving event logs

Author

BaseSOC expert

Date

May 28, 2023

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Security Operation Center event log archiving

The archiving of event logs is intended to provide access to relevant information that can enrich advanced incident or post-intrusion analysis.

What are event logs?

Event logs, otherwise known as machine data, are a record of all activity that occurs in systems, applications, networks and devices. They contain information about various types of events, such as user logins, failed login attempts, configuration changes, network attacks, and other relevant activity. Analysis of these logs allows detection of suspicious behavior, response to incidents, and auditing of activities to verify compliance with security policies.

Archiving event logs is important for several reasons:

  1. Tracking activity history: Archiving allows you to store events over a longer period of time, making it possible to analyze activity in retrospect. This allows the identification of long-term trends and suspicious patterns that may remain invisible in short-term analysis.

  2. Compliance and auditing: Many regulated industries require event logs to be kept for a certain period of time for auditing purposes and to ensure compliance with regulations and security standards.

  3. Incident detection and response: Long-term data archiving allows the SOC to more accurately understand the characteristics of attacks and patterns of adversary activity. This increases the effectiveness in detecting and responding to advanced threats.

  4. Event reconstruction: In the event of an incident, archived logs allow the reconstruction of the chronology of events, which is crucial for analyzing the causes and introducing appropriate preventive measures in the future.

  5. Data loss prevention: In the event of a system crash or corruption, archived copies of event logs can help restore lost data.

Security Operation Center’s event log archiving is an important part of effective security management. This allows the SOC to track activity history, respond to incidents, meet compliance and data protection requirements, and draw conclusions based on long-term analysis. But log archiving is also a challenge that requires the right tools, scalability and security measures to make effective use of the collected data. The importance of log archiving will continue to grow as technology evolves and threats evolve, so the SOC must continually improve its approach to data storage and analysis to ensure effective protection against today’s threats.