IT compliance management from the cloud

Log monitoring requirements for IT compliance

Most IT compliance regulations mandate log management as part of their audit requirements. This is because log monitoring is a fundamental aspect of IT security; auditing your logs is a must to detect and respond to security incidents.

Below are three fundamental log monitoring requirements for compliance:

• Log aggregation: Collect logs from your network, and manage, analyze, and store them centrally. If you're deploying a security information and event management (SIEM) solution for the first time, start with monitoring your servers and network perimeter equipment such as firewalls and routers.

  Compliance regulations typically specify the exact events that you need to monitor and the fields from log messages that you need to extract, such as the username and time. You can define your audit policy accordingly, and aggregate logs to your SIEM solution.

• Archival: Archiving logs for a specific period is a crucial aspect of the log management process, especially because logs are what security teams turn to in the wake of a security incident. Compliance regulations typically require logs to be stored for a specific duration such as six months or one year. Regulations also mandate proper security measures to protect logs against unauthorized access and tampering.

• Reporting: Security teams need to generate audit reports to visualize important security events such as logons and network traffic. These reports need to be scheduled to review security events periodically; the reports need to be furnished to auditors to demonstrate compliance. Each compliance regulation requires specific reports to be generated.

Various regulations such as the PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOX mandate the above log management capabilities. Achieving effective log monitoring is easier said than done. Over the last few years, organizations have been increasingly turning to cloud-based approaches to audit their network for compliance.

Benefits of cloud-based IT compliance management

Below are the four main reasons why organizations are turning to cloud-based log management tools for assisting them with compliance audits:

• Secure log storage: While there is no guarantee of safety in the cyber world, storing logs on the cloud does provide added security measures compared to on-premises storage.

• Cost optimization: Organizations need to pay only for the storage space they need, making cloud-based storage cost effective.

• Ease of deployment and access: The solution can be set up easily, and security teams can start monitoring their logs immediately. Authorized administrators can access logs, monitor security events, and view compliance reports securely from anywhere.

• Scalability: As you collect more data and need more storage space, a cloud-based solution will make it easy for you to scale up.

Ease your compliance woes with Log360 Cloud

Log360 Cloud is a cloud-based log management tool that makes the process of log management and compliance simple and efficient. The solution is a SaaS offering that can collect logs from your servers and network infrastructure via an agent.

The Log360 Cloud platform provides added security measures that ensure the protection and integrity of logs. Learn more about the security features of Zoho Corporation's cloud platform that Log360 Cloud uses here.

Out-of-the-box compliance reporting

Log360 Cloud provides a wide range of pre-built compliance reports. Out-of-the-box reporting templates are available for a wide range of regulations such as the PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, and ISO. The reports are mapped to specific requirements of these regulations, so you can start scheduling and generating audit reports right away.

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