Cloud Log Capture and Analysis


  • many cloud services provide log creation, monitoring, and analysis tools
    • but may want to use your own services
  • Cloud native tools:
    • Amazon: CloudWatch
      • provides monitoring for Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances and other services
    • Azure: Azure Monitor
      • provides analysis, monitoring, alerting, visualization
    • Google: GCP operations suite

Event Sources and Attributes

  • understanding where log entries are coming from and what the information in the logs mean is critical
  • Basic elements of logs for CCSP:
    • Identity
      • system, user, or service identity
    • IP address
      • source and destination
    • Geolocation of events and IP
    • Time stamps
  • Events contain information about what occurred
    • service log entry, event ID, or simply the query or request processed
    • security analysts should know which events are malicious
    • cloud storage events have their own specific log entries, event IDs, and related details
      • when designing cloud data security models, need to identify:
        • what to log
        • what events are important
        • what should be alerted on
        • where logs are stored and analyzed
        • how long to retain logs
        • how to secure logs

Best Practices for Cloud Logging and Analysis

Log Management

  • Logging generates massive amounts of logs
    • takes up large amount of storage space, increasing costs
  • need to sort and filter important logs
  • SIEMs help with log management
    • collect, manage, analyze, and display log data