What is Centralized Log Management?
12.04.2019
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In case of a cyber security incident, logs play a vital role in various activities such as establishing the point of compromise, tracing the actions of an attacker, further investigation, and regulatory proceedings before an authority, etc. Logs are generated by every application, let it be a general application like performance monitoring or security specific application like a firewall.
Logs assist in understanding how changes have taken place in a particular system. By searching, sorting, and filtering the log data, it becomes easy to pinpoint errors, issues, loopholes, or gaps that might have occurred. Manually doing so can be an extremely time-consuming process as one needs to look at thousands of log entries coming from hundreds of log files.
In order to ease this entire process, many solutions such as a Centralized Log Management (CLM) solution comes into the picture.
A Centralized Log Management System, or a CLM system, is a type of logging solution which collects your log data from multiple sources and consolidates the collected data. This consolidated data is then presented on a central interface which is easy-to-use as well as easily accessible. The primary motive behind the development of CLM systems is to cut-short the frustrating process of manually going through a plethora of log data and hence, making the life easier for an internal security team.
Apart from various data collection features, an ideal CLM system is also expected to support analysis of log data and clear presentation of outcomes after analysis.
A CLM system provides the following capabilities to your organization –
For SIEM solutions like that of Logsign, log data is a backbone and irreplaceable. An ideal SIEM solution combines log data and state data to give you a detailed overview of your organization’s security. This, in turn, forms the foundation for the majority of security-related decisions for your organization. Many SIEM-as-a-service providers put limitations on log data collection due to their pricing model. Hence, you must thoroughly check the pricing model before availing the services from a third-party service provider.
We have discussed multiple times previously that absolute security is a myth and no one has a universal weapon against the risks posed by these threats. The actors with malicious intent are always going to be there no matter what and they will keep on finding new and unique ways to break into organizational systems such as website, network, applications, or firewall. However, having an efficient SIEM solution with centralized log management system can indeed make a significant difference between staying on top in this digital battle or losing it and maybe, going out of the business.
