Event Log Management Best Practices for Security & Compliance

A great cybersecurity program doesn’t just address issues – it learns from them. And where your safety and compliance are concerned, there’s no better learning tool than event log management.  

Event log management is the process of collecting, storing, and analyzing network data. From this data, IT technicians can extrapolate information on potential threats, errors, and weak points in your system as a whole.  

Seems simple, right? Well, not quite.  

 Establishing a proactive event log management system takes significant planning and expertise; Handled improperly and the efficacy of your whole security and compliance program will get lost in the shuffle. 

Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to you. Here are some event log management best practices for security and compliance.  

Define Your Parameters

Understanding what you’re logging is just as important as understanding how you’re logging it. Before you can get started on the latter, you must outline which events you’d like to keep track of.  

The answer is a bit different for every business: too little information can leave holes in your security, but too much information and your engineers won’t be able to see through the roughage. Of course, you’ll always want to log outages and anomalies, but depending on what kind of data you have, there might be other significant events to consider.  

Determine Your Organizational Tools

From a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management platform) to a dedicated log management tool, what software you use to log security events matters. To give your IT department a full picture, you’ll want to store all of your data from each endpoint in the same pipeline and the same format.

Doing so will streamline the log management process and reduce time waste.  

Describe the Event Details

The importance of detailed logs cannot be overstated.  

Security event log management relies heavily on the precision of responding engineers to determine issues. Before you begin, come up with a shorthand with your IT department. The more your team can say with the fewer words, the easier it will be to suss out cyber threats.  

When logging events, make sure that your team is providing end-to-end descriptions, meaning that they outline all the steps taken to resolve the event in addition to the event itself. This will speed up the process should the same issue happen again.  

Similarly, assigning unique identifiers to users can help decrease excess noise from within your log and find past events when necessary.  

Dictate Priorities

Not all security events are created equal. When establishing an event log management program, you want to pay special attention to how your team prioritizes and ranks tasks.  

Ensuring that your IT department gets to the most pressing issues first can mitigate the risk of cyberattacks and compliance issues early.  

Dissect Your Results

Log management provides real-time information about your security. Use it!  

Taking the time to read through, review, and analyze your event log can help delineate what changes you need to make, quickly. As a part of a robust IT program, event log management can also help you stop cybercriminals before they strike. Constant and consistent monitoring procedures are essential. 

Designate a Partner

Too much to take in? We don’t blame you. Sometimes your security is better left to the experts.  

For over 20 years, EMPIST has been a go-to source for cybersecurity services. Let our team of experts steer your event log management system towards success.  Contact EMPIST today to get started!