NIST Special Publication 800-92, "Guide to Computer Security Log Management", establishes guidelines and recommendations for securing and managing sensitive log data. The publication was prepared by Karen Kent and Murugiah Souppaya of the National Institute of Science and Technology and published under the SP 800-Series; [1] a repository of best practices for the InfoSec community. Log management is essential to ensuring that computer security records are stored in sufficient detail for an appropriate period of time. [2]
Effective security event logging and log analysis is a critical component of any comprehensive security program within an organization. It is used to monitor system, network and application activity. It serves as a deterrent for unauthorized activity, as well as provides a means to detect and analyze an attack in order to allow the organization to mitigate or prevent similar attacks in the future. However, security professionals have a significant challenge to determine what events must be logged, where and how long to retain those logs, and how to analyze the enormous amount of information that can be generated. A deficiency in any of these areas can cause an organization to miss signs of unauthorized activity, intrusion, and loss of data, which creates additional risk. [3]
NIST SP 800-92 provides a high-level overview and guidance for the planning, development and implementation of an effective security log management strategy. The intended audience for this publication include the general information security (InfoSec) community involved in incident response, system/application/network administration and managers. [2]
NIST SP 800-92 defines a log management infrastructure as having 4 major functions: [4]
NIST SP 800-92 address the following security log management challenges:
NIST SP 800-92 makes the following recommendations for security log management: [5]
The following federal regulations require the proper handling and storage of sensitive log data:
In cryptography, a key derivation function (KDF) is a cryptographic algorithm that derives one or more secret keys from a secret value such as a master key, a password, or a passphrase using a pseudorandom function. KDFs can be used to stretch keys into longer keys or to obtain keys of a required format, such as converting a group element that is the result of a Diffie–Hellman key exchange into a symmetric key for use with AES. Keyed cryptographic hash functions are popular examples of pseudorandom functions used for key derivation.
The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 is a United States federal law enacted in 2002 as Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002. The act recognized the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. The act requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and information systems that support the operations and assets of the agency, including those provided or managed by another agency, contractor, or other source.
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NIST Special Publication 800-53 is an information security standard that provides a catalog of privacy and security controls for information systems. Originally indented for U.S. federal agencies except those related to national security, since the 5th revision it is a standard for general usage. It is published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. NIST develops and issues standards, guidelines, and other publications to assist federal agencies in implementing the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) and to help with managing cost effective programs to protect their information and information systems.
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