Top 10 Common Security Log Sources

In this article, we will see the top 10 common security log sources that are being developed and used by companies. Log Sources are a type of data source that creates an event log in an organization. The log is nothing but the records with data. An event log is a tool that has software and hardware-related information. When any security threat occurs, these logs help the security specialists to use this information in the event logs for security management. Event logs are generated in a computer system that has the stuff for identifying the bugs, risks, or threats.

Every organization should have a log analysis based on the law, and on how the data is maintained and analyzed.

Security Log sources

The log sources have security-based logging information for tracking security threats. Now a day’s cyber-attacks have turned out to be an emerging crime in the IT industry that can be prevented by using this log source.

The top 10 common security Log Sources are listed below

1. Server Logs

In a computer system, server logs contain information regarding the working environment. Depending on the logs, we can identify the suspicious activities of the system and provide solutions accordingly. In Server logs, thousands of events occur we can use the respective event ID to get information about any particular event. In the windows operating system, the examples of events are

Event ID	Meaning
4624	Account is logged in successfully.
4625	Account failed to log in.

2. Internet Connection Firewall Security Log

Firewall logs analysis and gives information regarding security threat attempts at the network edge. It also gives the nature of the network traffic entering and leaving the firewall.

The Information in the firewall logs gives the administrators access to real-time data on security threats for an immediate solution. In any business, monitoring the firewall log is difficult, so for which the software named “Firewall Analyzer” can be used for monitoring the threats.

3. Proxy logs

A proxy log consists of data that can be used for detecting any unwanted activities. We can try the software named “Proxy log Explorer” for these Proxy logs for the Windows operating system. It is the fastest and most efficient application tool for tracking the efficiency of data usage in any organization.

This application creates different reports based on the issues. We can easily get the information of the reports by just right-clicking on the respective sub-reports on the software application.

4. System Monitor (Sysmon)

A log file is a type of file that has records of the events occurring in an operating system. The operating system can be windows, Linux, UNIX, or any other. But most corporate uses windows for their working environment. To track the events in windows, Sysmon is the most commonly used security log software.

System Monitor is a free software tool for windows. Once installed in a system, it monitors the log system activities, network connections, process creation, and any changes in the file creation time. There are 26 events in sysmon and some are pipe connected and the file was deleted.

5. Packet Capture (PCAP) Logs

Packet capture helps to monitor the network traffic, and identify the performance of the network’s issues. The packet capturing will detect security issues, packet loss, and if there is any network congestion. This enhances the organization's security by analyzing packets to get information if any sudden spike in the network traffic.

6. Symantec Endpoint Protection

Symantec software is developed by Broadcom for security purposes at the endpoint. Millions of devices with various OS, applications, and capabilities are used by employees to access data. Even though we prevent the security issues at the starting stage, it has to be maintained at the endpoint also. To stop cyber attacks and to guard the sensitive information in the endpoint the security log is in need.

7. NetFlow

Netflow is an Internet Protocol developed by Cisco and has released different versions. The Network speed and usage need to be monitored, and this software makes it easy. When a client requests the server, the NetFlow record is created. It is used to record Metadata.

It includes the Source and Destination IP address. Some of the signs of NetFlow are bandwidth usage, planning of the capacity of networks, and network visibility.

8. Hypervisor Logs

Hypervisors are program that is used to run and manage one or more virtual machines on a system. The Hypervisor is also called the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) used in the Linux Operating system. In the IT industry, people utilize enormous resources and have workloads. They are under one tool to manage different Virtual machines, so the chances of threats are at high risk. They share the storage; allocate resources from one virtual machine to another.

9. Azure Security Logging

The logs provide the security information for the policy violations, and internal and external threats to the system are produced by the resources when needed. These logs particularly include specific resources, network security flow logs, DDoS protection logs for virtual networks, and audit logs that need to be taken. It has a particular lifecycle for the monitoring which is the Generation, collection, Analysis, monitoring, and reporting of the issues.

10. Windows System Logs

The windows system log is accessible to all systems with windows OS. It does not need any downloads of software. By pressing the Windows key + R on the keyboard, open the run window. Followed by type event to get the events viewer window, where we can monitor the records of the system.

Conclusion

In a computer system, security plays a vital role in managing event logs. If any bad thing happens, the security log sources are pointed in the tracking system. This helps to identify malicious functions. Using these logs, they are auto-generated instead of manual entry which takes time.