Advanced Attacks On The Rise When the pandemic made its impact around the globe early 2020, it simultaneously ushered in an exponential surge in cybersecurity attacks. In the scramble to mass-migrate busi- nesses to virtual work environments, many did not have the time or resources to implement strong cybersecurity policies and processes. This climate has allowed cyberattacks to boom in nearly all industry verticals, impacting critical infrastructure, utilities, transport, food supplies, health care, education, and the U.S. economy at federal, state, and municipal levels. Advanced cyberattacks are now considered a risk to nation - al security following the sweeping uptick in cyberattacks. Once targeting small companies or individuals, threat actors are now making headlines by growing their attack radius to include major infrastructure companies and even leading security firms. What’s more is that threat actors are quickly evolving their tactics and targets when it comes to deploying their assaults. Increased Focus On Data Logging To combat these cyberattacks, more and more MSPs are turn- ing to security logs to understand developing security incidents, achieve compliance, conduct post-incident investigation, and ensure the day-to-day health of their IT environment. Regular security logging is often instrumental when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of your network security and operations. What Are Security Logs Used For? Security logging is a process that collects a full record of events occurring within an MSP’s networks and systems. Security logs contain log entries — data related to each of those specific events. The log entries are then regularly audited and used for the following: Identifying indications of unauthorized activities attempted or performed on a system, application, or device Satisfying security compliance framework requirements Establishing normal operational baselines and trends and building organizational standards, policies, and/or controls Providing evidence during investigations, audits, and forensic analysis
(log management systems). No doubt, these types of tools can aggregate incredible amounts of data from multiple sources in an infrastructure to provide visibility. However, with so many MSP products available on the market, which ones truly enhance your security stack? Traditional logging tools collect raw data in a centralized platform and apply behavioral logic to trigger notifications on incidents or security events. In a combination of data collection, rules, notifications, and data consolidation and correlation, they work to provide real-time visibility across an organization through event log management. After consolidating the data across all sources of network security information, they then correlate the events gathered based on pre-established rules and profiles, and finally notify on security events. While these tools are designed to dig through copious amounts of logs and identify anomalous behavior or opportu- nities vulnerable to threat actors, they are slow to derive imme- diate context, especially in the event of a security breach where response times are critical. When building a trusted end-to-end security offering, it is vital to understand how logging tools work, their benefits, and their limitations so you can make an informed decision on how to better secure your IT environment. Cannot Provide Real-Time Response During a security event, cutting down on response times is crucial to safeguarding sensitive data. To do so, MSPs need a proactive and agile approach to real-time response. While many logging platforms are good for defending against known threats within fixed parameters, their rule-based approach may not translate well to advanced threat response. Since they are built to alert on potential threats after locating evidence within aggregated data logs, their reactive models can lack the context needed to provide actionable data right away. If you are unable to pinpoint anomalies in real time, you will not be able to make timely decisions on how to tackle critical events. Real-time logging is a start to collecting valuable information and ensur-
ing visibility across an IT environment, but the true value is in real-time data interpretation allowing for immediate action.
Challenges Of Implementing Security Log Management Often, MSPs looking to bolster their logging capabilities turn to tools such as SIEMs (security information and event management) and LMSs
MSPSuccessMagazine.com/cyber2022
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