T?he current dynamic IT scenario ascertains the importance of security logs because of the rise in hackers activities. The resultant requirement is an event log management tool to detect security issues within your network. Massive data in gigabytes are likely to appear per day that are irrelevant; until critically analyzed to confirm network security is error-free. Event log management comes prior to any other measures you may have considered for security reasons. It is not an opinion but an enforcing factor for ensuring security and growing auditing concerns.

Security Event Log Management Checklist

Before zeroing down on any of the event log management software application, it is crucial to know if it serves as the correct solution to your unique security demands, is it cost-effective? What would be the exact features and role of the event log management solution in your company? Overall, review the event log management solution on the following parameters: 

Easy to Use Reports

It should most importantly, bring about convenience in reviewing security information with an easy,comprehensible report structure providing summarized view of the security data. Additionally, the data management by the event log management tool should be such that, a quick insight into the security-related information is possible and analytical. T? he reports should give an overview on the top event reports on logon, logoff attempts, alerts and system users that are of high relevance to the administrator and the enterprise management.

D?etecting Threats by Tracking Down the History of their Occurrences

T?he event logging tool should be able to provide trend analysis so as to bring about the disguised threats in spotlight. T? o derive an implication on specific pattern of events, the event log tool should be in a position to present a visual representation of the updated factual security information.

The Archiving Feature, Storage Capacity

Y?our event log tool should be scalable enough to include heavy amount of log data? and store this for a longer, required period of time to be available for forensic investigation; in case a security incident occurs within the organization.

Supporting Systems and Formats

The event log tool should be compatible with any given log source, supporting Security Issues in Network Event Logging Standard (syslog),Windows, W3C web server, proxies and applications as well. The IBM AIX, Sun Solaris BSM) UNIX logs and any devices from CISCO (routers & switches), Junifer and others, too, should be monitored and logs collected and analyzed from these systems. So, basically, it has to accept log data from heterogeneous sources in variety of formats.

Role of an Event Log Application

Should collect, archive, correlate and analyze security log files. It should be a reliable, cost-effective and an integrated solution for compliance, IT operations and security concerns.