The Intelligent Log Management Strategy
Over the last decade, Windows has become a dominating force in the desktop and enterprise server market. Companies are utilizing Windows servers within their core business more and more. At the same time, new security legislation has been passed which has continued to get more stringent and challenging for organizations worldwide.
The new compliance challenges coupled with the widely increased Windows system adoption has created the need for a solid Windows log management solution. The solution must meet all the needs and requirements of security professionals, administrators and the auditors. The solution has to be able to help security administrators overcome the Windows event log challenges, while accommodating the needs of the network event logs. Unfortunately, Windows event logs are not as easy to understand as event logs on other platforms or devices.
When looking at the overall log management picture, Windows event logs create some unique and challenging problems that other event logs don’t cause. This is largely because the real definitions of Windows security events are not documented well. In fact, many of the Windows security events are so cryptic they appear to make little or no sense at all. This lack of information continues to stump even many logging experts. The average security officer or administrator has many daily tasks and they don’t have the time or the inclination to research each events meaning.
The true definitions of the Windows events has been baffling security teams and administrators for years. Many authority websites have been established to give IT professionals’ advice on how to best decipher and handle them. Unfortunately, many of the recommendations provided, are only small fraction of the overall solution that is needed to translate the true Windows event definitions into usable data.
This problem affects the entire log management picture because the majority of overall events get generated on Windows domain controllers, servers and databases. Without intelligent log analysis solutions, Windows event logs continue to impact organizations in several negative ways.
Log Fidelity has taken a completely different approach to solving these unique log management problems, than any other log solution vendor. The Log Fidelity development team has conducted significant research into deciphering the Windows auditing system and the Windows events themselves to develop fully automated log filtering and correlation intelligence into LogClarity®. This technology dramatically enhances event log collection, enterprise reporting, and forensics. Most importantly, this advanced technology dramatically combats data pollution.
One of the most troublesome trials and tribulations in log management, is determining which events are critical, which events are significant, and which events are not worthy of collecting at all. Unfortunately, this is even more challenging in Windows environments because Windows events are so cryptic and undocumented.
Log Fidelity’s approach to this problem is to eliminate the difficult event filtering and correlation decisions and automate them. LogClarity® automatically filters out the redundant and duplicate event logs, without losing any real data. LogClarity® then translates and correlates events into understandable actions in real-time. This intelligent indexing, transforms the disjointed events into usable real-time security intelligence. Initially this advanced concept, might be considered risky, because data might be lost, however, LogClarity® has been rigorously tested and proven to provide even more detailed information from event log data than any other logging solution.
This powerful automatic filtration and correlation technology, known as the Log Clarity Design Framework (LCDF), is a landmark breakthrough which has given birth to Intelligent Log Management. This innovation, dramatically improves log retention without archiving, streamlines forensics, and provides a realistic account of all enterprise activity.