Logs Fundamentals
Premium roomLearn what logs are and how to analyze them for effective investigation.
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45 min
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Attackers are clever. They avoid leaving maximum traces on the victim’s side to avoid detection. Yet, the security team successfully determines how the attack was executed and is even sometimes successful in finding who was behind the attack.
Suppose a few policemen are investigating the disappearance of a precious locket in a snowy jungle cabin. They observed that the wooden door of the cabin was brutally damaged, and the ceiling collapsed. There were some footprints on the snowy path to that cabin. Lastly, they discovered some CCTV footage from a neighbouring residence. By placing together all these traces, the police successfully determined who was behind the attack. Various traces are found in several such cases; putting all these together takes you closer to the criminal.
It seems like these traces play a big role in the investigations.
What if something happened within a digital device? Where do we find all these traces to investigate further?
There are various places inside a system where the traces of an attack could be fetched. The logs contain most of these traces. Logs are the digital footprints left behind by any activity. The activity could be a normal one or the one with malicious intent. Tracing down the activity and the individual behind the execution of that activity becomes easier through logs.
Use Cases of Logs
The following are some key areas in which the logs play an integral role.
| Use Case | Description |
|---|---|
| Security Events Monitoring | Logs help us detect anomalous behavior when real-time monitoring is used. |
| Incident Investigation and Forensics | Logs are the traces of every kind of activity. It offers detailed information on what happened during the incident. The security team utilizes the logs to perform root cause analysis of incidents. |
| Troubleshooting | As the logs also record the errors in systems or applications, they can be used to diagnose issues and helpful in fixing them. |
| Performance Monitoring | Logs can also provide valuable insights into the performance of applications. |
| Auditing and Compliance | Logs play a major role in Auditing and Compliance, making it easier with its capability to establish a trail of different kinds of activities. |
This room will equip you with an understanding of various types of logs maintained in different systems. We will also be practically investigating logs as traces of different attacks.
Learning Objectives
After completing this room, you will learn about the following:
- The different types of logs
- How to analyze logs
- Analyzing Windows Event logs
- Analyzing Web Access logs
Where can we find the majority of attack traces in a digital system?
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