Activity Logs and Alerts

 

As briefly mentioned earlier, in order to keep data secure, you need to have a way of knowing who has access, which resources and at which time. This is where activity pops and alerts can be extremely useful. There are a few ways in which this can be achieved, a lot of which are built into windows and require minimal setup, with some aspects even being activated by default, such as system of unlocked found on every Windows machine. However, there are also some clear policy solutions available which can work either independently or in combination with activity logs within Windows itself. From my experience, most companies will tend to use a combination of their party and built in security solutions. As in most cases, their policy tools can actually access windows of unclogs from multiple different network locations and present them as one document is in an easy to read for months, which can be especially useful during complex investigations that require information to be obtained quickly and easily. This is especially true when you need to present information to someone that wouldn't normally have an I.T. background, such as a chief executive, unless, of course, your organization happens to be an I.T. support company. One of the advantages of using Third-Party auditing solutions is that they can often detect patterns of unusual behavior and generate email alerts that essentiality security staff. For example, if someone from H.R. suddenly accessed every payroll file on the system at the same time, or if someone from a different departments access files that were completely unrelated to them. However, for most businesses, there will be a cost balancing exercise here, as auditing software can often be expensive with the cost, usually depending on how many computers and servers need to be scum's, as well as how many users your organization has, including system accounts and I.T. administrators. Finally, when choosing a third party activity monitoring solution, I would advise getting a free trial version first, as you will then be able to see whether its capabilities are a good fit for your organization. In most cases, during a free trial of such software, the sales department will be able to answer any questions regarding specific features that may be particularly useful to your specific organization. Note that in the case of most large companies, auditing solutions will most likely be already in place. But as with all aspects of security, this should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the best security measures for your organization continue to be in place. Now that we've gone over locks and alert, let's move on to an overview of external staff and contractors, along with the implications of this on information security within organizations.