Imagine logging into your organization’s system one morning only to discover threat actors had exfiltrated all of your current and past customers’ data. Or picture trying to log on and realizing hackers have locked you out of your systems.  

Although these two situations are hypothetical, the story is all too familiar. In the last few years, giant corporations and small businesses alike have been rocked by cyberattacks. Could anything have been done to stop these attacks before data was stolen or systems were completely frozen? 

The short answer is yes. In most cases, attackers move around an organization’s infrastructure for days, weeks, or months before anyone notices. Early signs of an attack could have been caught, and remediation steps could have minimized the impact. How? Through comprehensive log monitoring and analysis.  

Think of your logs as the digital breadcrumbs left behind by user (and threat actor!) activity and system processes. You can follow those breadcrumbs to understand what happened (or is happening), when, and why. However, if only a few logs are reviewed or numerous logs are analyzed in isolation, even the most experienced security experts might not spot the warning signs.  

All logs need to be merged into a unified solution, such as a next-gen MDR, and analyzed together to gain deeper visibility and potentially reveal the beginnings of an attack. It’s the equivalent of seeing the forest AND the trees, and it provides SecOps teams with the information they need to respond to threats quickly, efficiently, and effectively. 

What Are Logs and Why Do They Matter?

Logs record each event that occurs within a system. They capture everything from user interactions to system errors, network traffic, and application performance issues, providing a detailed account of what happens within an IT environment.  

There are two main types of logs: troubleshooting logs and security-focused logs. Understanding the difference between them and their respective roles is crucial for effective security operations.  

Troubleshooting Logs 

Troubleshooting logs focus on application-specific issues, like database errors or API calls. IT teams typically use them to help find and resolve technical issues within software apps. The logs can include information about app crashes, performance issues, and other errors that need to be addressed to ensure smooth operation. They are important for maintaining system health and optimizing performance; however, they don’t provide the level of detail or information needed for security monitoring. 

Security Logs 

Security-focused logs are the bread and butter of cybersecurity operations. They capture information that’s necessary for identifying and reacting to potential threats. The logs include data on network traffic, user authentication attempts, endpoint activity, file access, and other actions that could indicate a security incident. By analyzing these logs, security teams can unearth suspicious behavior, investigate potential breaches, and take action to mitigate attacks. 

Both types of logs are valuable, but security-focused logs are essential for maintaining a strong security posture and being able to remediate a breach should one occur.  

The Power of Diverse Log Sources 

Each log source provides unique insights and offers a different perspective on what’s happening in your IT environment. Here are some examples: 

• Endpoints: These logs show what’s happening on individual computers and servers. They’re great for seeing what users do locally and spotting malware infection signs. 

• Networks: Network logs show communication between systems and external connections. They’re vital for spotting attackers entering through an open port, making lateral movements, and unmasking patterns of data exfiltration. 

• Servers: Server logs capture system-level events and resource usage. They help pinpoint performance bottlenecks and potential security issues, such as unauthorized access attempts. 

• Applications: Application logs detail specific program actions and errors. They’re indispensable for understanding how software behaves under load and can highlight dubious user behavior. 

• Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud-native logs provide visibility into SaaS usage, API calls, and container activities. They’re critical for securing modern, distributed architectures. 

Collecting and correlating data from all log sources empowers SecOps teams to identify suspicious patterns and anomalies that could signify a threat. A spike in failed login attempts across multiple endpoints combined with unusual network traffic could signal a coordinated attack. Without both endpoint and network logs, this pattern might go unnoticed. 

In addition to improving threat detection, diverse log sources enhance the investigation and response process. When an incident occurs, having access to logs from multiple sources allows security experts to quickly piece together the sequence of events and understand the full scope of the attack.  

However, if all your data is siloed, that can work against you. Not only does it create blind spots in your security monitoring, but it also makes it difficult to connect the dots. Since the financial costs of an attack increase by the minute, reducing your Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) is imperative.   

A next-gen MDR that can handle all log types and unlimited data is far more effective, as it enables seamless correlation and log analysis and provides a holistic view of your environment, facilitating more accurate threat detection and faster incident response. 

Enriching Security with Comprehensive Logging in an MDR 

Remember 2017’s WannaCry ransomware attack? Better logging practices could have helped organizations detect and react quicker. For example, endpoint logs could have shown signs of malware execution or system modifications, network logs might have exposed unusual outbound connections to known ransomware command and control servers, and application logs could have pointed to abnormal behavior in business-critical systems. With access to those insights, IT teams could have isolated affected systems quickly and potentially prevented the spread of the malware within their networks. 

The same could be said about 2020’s SolarWinds supply chain attack. Application logs from SolarWinds’ own software might have exposed unusual API calls or configuration changes, while network logs could have revealed unexpected communication between internal systems and external servers, and endpoint logs might have shown signs of lateral movement within the network after initial compromise. 

Both examples demonstrate how comprehensive logging could have significantly improved the ability to identify, investigate, and respond to cyberattacks. With attacks happening every 39 seconds, statistically speaking, your organization will be targeted soon. 

However, by using an MDR for monitoring and log analysis, your team will be better prepared to spot it, understand its full extent, and be able to take swift action to minimize damage. Given today’s complex threat landscape, your organization must use every tool in its toolbox. Otherwise, you’re impeding your team’s ability to do its job; it would be like asking a detective to solve a crime without surveillance footage or eyewitness accounts. 

Don’t wait until it’s too late. By embracing diverse log sources and implementing a unified logging solution, your organization can strengthen its security posture and give itself the best chance of stopping the next cyberattack before it becomes a disaster.