How to Build Company Product Internal Logs

When we discuss the intricate framework of information security and its critical components, one area that often gets overshadowed is the concept of internal logging. Building a secure and efficient logging system isn’t merely an addition to your company’s security apparatus; it’s a necessity. Internal logs maintain the integrity of your data, monitor user activities, and often play a pivotal role in threat detection and mitigation. understanding the activity logs of your company product will allow you to detect and understand misuse of the company services and products by external and internal threats. Who used what, who logged in when, who deleted what, who made whatever change in the system – all need to be logged in and saved to ease the work of forensic analyst.

Why Internal Logs are Essential for Every Company

Before we delve into the step-by-step guide, it’s crucial to understand why internal logs are so vital. In a world rampant with data breaches and cybersecurity threats, having a log of every internal operation can be a lifesaver. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg:

1. Accountability & Transparency: Logs ensure that every action taken within the system can be traced back to an entity, ensuring accountability.
2. Quick Incident Response: With logs, anomalies are detected faster, making the response to potential security incidents swifter.
3. Regulatory Compliance: Many industries mandate the maintenance of specific logs to adhere to regulatory requirements.

Key Components to Include in Your Internal Logs

Every company’s needs are different, but there are some universally applicable components that should be included in every internal logging system, those are but not restricted to:

• Timestamps: Every log entry should have a precise timestamp. This aids in creating a chronological sequence of events, which is particularly beneficial during data forensics.
• User Details: Who made the change? Capturing user details, including their IP addresses and unique user IDs, is essential.
• Type of Action: Data deletion? Data edit/modification. what was done as part of the log we document ?

Note: Remember, the goal isn’t just to record but to ensure that these logs serve a purpose in enhancing your security.

For those delving deep into the world of ISMS, it would be helpful to understand the history of the Information Security Management System. Building on past learnings can offer invaluable insights.

Incorporating ISMS Principles in Your Logging System

When setting up internal logs, the principles of Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) should be at its core. ISMS isn’t just about protecting your organization’s information through a set of policies and procedures. It’s a systematic approach to managing sensitive company information. And what better way to manage this information than to log it effectively?

However, as you begin this journey, you may have a slew of questions. It’s not uncommon. Here’s a handy guide addressing the 5 most common questions about Information Security Management. It provides clarity on some of the fundamental aspects of ISMS.

Pro Tip: If you’re grappling with the broader concepts of ISMS or wish to address some specific concerns, the team at SecurityISMS is always available to assist. Their dedicated experts can provide tailored solutions and insights.

Challenges and Their Solutions

Building a logging system isn’t without its challenges. You might be concerned about the safety of sensitive information. After all, logs often contain critical data. The key lies in protecting sensitive information, especially during identity verification processes.

Another area that demands attention is web security. With digital transformation taking the front seat, ensuring that your web APIs are secure becomes paramount. You can find a comprehensive guide on how to build a secure web API on SecurityISMS. This resource ensures that your logging system remains impenetrable from web threats.

Finally, always be prepared against potential phishing attacks. They remain one of the most common threats to digital systems. Being proactive and understanding how organizations can protect against phishing attacks is your best defense.

Train Your Team

Internal logging isn’t just an IT affair. Every member of your organization must understand its importance. This entails regular training sessions, workshops, and even real-time simulations to make everyone aware of the significance of logs. Additionally, understanding what a cybersecurity analyst does can offer insights into the behind-the-scenes operations and the continuous effort that goes into maintaining security.

Regularly Review and Update

Reviewing and updating your logging mechanism is not just a one-time effort. As cyber threats evolve, so should your defense mechanisms. Apply security measurements once doesn’t solve long term issues, applying logs once and then forgetting to continuously creating more logs as the system/team/product and services grow will leave you blind at certain points of your grand schema of ISMS strategy. Keeping abreast of the common FAQs on InfoSec and ISMS will help you stay updated with the latest trends and challenges in the domain.

Who Will Read Logs

There are few stakeholders, people of interest in company and outside of the company that will want to have access to those logs. and activity logs of your system. listed below are a few with possible cases and why would they want to read the logs.

Stakeholder	Why They will read logs?	Example Case
Cybersecurity Analysts	To detect, monitor, and respond to cyber threats.	Identifying a brute force attack pattern and blocking the IP address.
System Administrators	To diagnose and troubleshoot system errors.	Investigating a sudden server crash or performance drop.
Compliance and Audit Teams	To ensure regulatory compliance and perform periodic checks.	Verifying GDPR compliance by checking data access logs.
Development and QA Teams	To detect and rectify bugs or issues during development and testing phases.	Debugging an application error that occurs only under specific conditions.
Incident Response Teams	To respond to and investigate security incidents.	Analyzing logs to understand the timeline of a security breach.
Management & C-Level Executives	For high-level monitoring and ensuring business continuity.	Reviewing monthly log summaries to assess system health and performance.
External Partners & Consultants	To provide expertise, insights, or compliance verification without internal bias.	Third-party consultants checking log procedures for ISO certification.
Customer Support Teams	To resolve customer-related issues by diagnosing system-user interactions.	Investigating a user’s complaint about a failed transaction.
Forensic Cybersecurity Professionals	For detailed investigations post any security incident, and to gather evidence.	Conducting a deep dive after a data breach to provide a detailed report.

As you might notice the logs are read by security professionals but not limited, In some cases customer support and development teams might use those internal tools, logs and activities to fix or reproduce an issue.

Wrapping Up

Building an internal log for your company isn’t a task to be taken lightly. With the right approach, guided by ISMS principles and backed by comprehensive security measures, it becomes an invaluable asset. As you move forward, always stay updated with the latest in security information vulnerabilities, and be ready to adapt and evolve.