Monitoring & Logging: If a Tree Falls and Nobody Logs It...
"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. But log everything anyway."
🔍 The Problem: Security Events Nobody Sees
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody logs it, it still fell. But you'll never prove it. You'll never know when. You'll never know why. And when the auditor asks, you'll look stupid.
Detection requires visibility. Visibility requires logging. Logging requires storage. Storage requires money. Money requires justification. And around we go.
ILLUMINATION: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody logs it, it still fell. But you'll never prove it. Log everything. Review intelligently.
đź“Š The Five Categories of "What to Watch"
1. Authentication Events
Who's trying to get in?
Logins, failures, lockouts, privilege escalations. If someone's trying to become root at 3 AM, that's worth knowing.
2. Authorization Events
Who's accessing what?
File access, permission changes, access denials. When your intern tries to read the CEO's email, notice.
3. System Events
What's the infrastructure doing?
Service starts/stops, configuration changes, resource exhaustion. Servers don't reboot themselves (usually).
4. Network Events
What's flowing where?
Traffic patterns, blocked connections, anomalies. 50GB outbound to Romania at midnight? Interesting.
5. Application Events
What are your apps actually doing?
Transactions, errors, security events. SQL injection attempts show up here if you're logging properly.
CHAOS ILLUMINATION: The log you didn't think to collect is the one that would have shown the breach. Log everything. Storage is cheaper than incident response.
⚖️ The Logging Triad: Collect, Retain, Review
Collect Everything (Almost)
Log authentication, authorization, configuration changes, security events, and errors. Don't log passwords or credit cards—that's just creating new problems.
Retain Intelligently
Hot storage: 30-90 days for investigation. Cold storage: 1-7 years for compliance. Forever storage: Not a thing unless you hate money.
Review Actually
SIEM systems that nobody monitors are expensive screensavers. Alerts that nobody responds to train attackers that they're invisible.
ILLUMINATION: A SIEM that generates 10,000 alerts per day is an untuned SIEM. Signal requires noise reduction. Tune or drown.
🚨 Detection vs. Prevention: Both Required
Prevention is ideal. Detection is necessary. You can't prevent everything—budget, complexity, and reality intervene. But you can detect everything if you log it.
Prevention: Stop attacks before they succeed.
Detection: Notice attacks while they're happening.
Response: Stop attacks after they start.
Recovery: Fix what broke.
You need all four. Prevention alone is optimism. Detection alone is archaeology. Choose balance.
đź“‹ What Hack23 Actually Does
Our monitoring and logging strategy is public (of course): ISMS-PUBLIC Repository
Note: Logging and monitoring controls are distributed across Network Security Policy, Secure Development Policy, and Security Metrics. No standalone monitoring policy recommended – controls distributed across operational areas.
- Centralized logging - CloudWatch, Splunk, or similar SIEM
- Log retention - 90 days hot, 1 year cold, 7 years compliance
- Alerting - Security events, authentication failures, config changes
- Regular review - Weekly for anomalies, daily for critical alerts
- Incident correlation - Link logs to incident response timelines
META-ILLUMINATION: If you're not reviewing logs, you're just collecting evidence for the attacker's trial. Detective controls require detection. Detection requires looking.
🎯 Conclusion: See to Believe
You can't defend what you can't see. You can't see what you don't log. You can't log what you don't configure. And you can't respond to what you don't review.
Monitoring and logging aren't optional—they're foundational. Prevention fails. Detection catches failure. Response limits damage. This is the cycle.
Log everything. Review intelligently. Respond quickly. Or find out the hard way that the breach happened six months ago and you never noticed.
All hail Eris! All hail Discordia!
"Think for yourself, schmuck! Question everything—especially logs that show 'no suspicious activity' when you know there should be."
🍎 23 FNORD 5
— Hagbard Celine, Captain of the Leif Erikson
P.S. You are now in Chapel Perilous. Your logs contain both truth and noise. Both are real. Neither is complete. Nothing is true. Everything is permitted—but logged.