Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Re: Event Log Monitoring - Recommendations


From: "William C. Moore" <wcmoore () VALDOSTA EDU>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:24:35 +0000

From a security perspective I couldn't agree more with sharing log information especially when the sensitive and 
confidential data are sanitized (within reason).  I take very little to no issue providing Systems and Network 
personnel read-only access and my primary requirement is that no one from these areas be able to modify or remove any 
logs.  Since we use syslog-ng quite a bit for UNIX log management the up side is the Network and Windows admins have a 
better reason to learn grep and awk.


Bill




William C. Moore II, CISSP, MEd, MLIS
Chief Information Security Officer
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698
Phone:(229)333-5974
Fax:  (229)245-4349



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From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Greg 
Williams
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 12:47
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Event Log Monitoring - Recommendations

I allow all of IT to use Splunk, minus some sensitive data.  There are definitely huge benefits to giving them access.  
They use it in some amazing ways especially looking at logs to make sure new technology they implement will be sized 
appropriately.  For example, looking at historical ldap connections per second and making sure a load balancer will 
handle all the requests.  They found out it would have reached peak capacity just a few seconds within the past year 
and could see exactly when it hit those peak times.


Greg Williams
IT Security Principal
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Website: http://www.uccs.edu/itsecure
greg.williams () uccs edu<mailto:greg.williams () uccs edu>

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Matt 
Pasiewicz
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 10:27 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Event Log Monitoring - Recommendations

For any of you that have rich search interfaces, are you exposing slices of the data to your devops crews?  You've got 
a wealth of information there.  When I was in the private sector, our goals for systems like these encompassed more 
than security ... depending on what log information you capture, they can provide great insight into defects and 
performance tuning (which can reduce costs).  My current thinking is that by enlarging the circle of participation, you 
get lots of intangible benefits ... developers are encouraged to make logs more meaningful (reducing the 
signal-to-noise ratio) and the the team as a whole realizes economies of scale across silos of security, development, 
operations, etc.  It creates the conditions for many reciprocal benefits.

Thoughts?

On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 9:53 AM, William C. Moore <wcmoore () valdosta edu<mailto:wcmoore () valdosta edu>> wrote:
Allow me to throw another name into the mix for comment.  I have been checking on Q1Labs also but I am also interested 
in Logrhythm as a viable SIEM.  We too used Splunk for several years but we found that it was not providing the reports 
and trending data we require.  I have yet to go through an on-campus demo so if anyone has a recommendation I too am 
very interested in their experience.


Bill




William C. Moore II, CISSP, MEd, MLIS
Chief Information Security Officer
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698
Phone:(229)333-5974<tel:%28229%29333-5974>
Fax:  (229)245-4349<tel:%28229%29245-4349>



***********************************************************************
The information transmitted is intended only for the person addressed.
Any unauthorized review, distribution or other use of or the taking of
any action in reliance upon this information is prohibited. If you
received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete or
destroy this message and any copies.
***********************************************************************

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () 
LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>] On Behalf Of Greg Williams
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 11:20
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Event Log Monitoring - Recommendations

Greg, for strictly log management I would recommend Splunk.   We put our Splunk deployment in place last year.  The 
goal wasn't event correlation, it was log management so we weren't really looking at a SIEM, such as QRadar, Nitro, 
ArcSight, etc.

I put together a log management policy and matrix before I started looking at products.  It helped narrow down the 
products before we started getting bids.  I can email it to you if you are interested.

Greg Williams
IT Security Principal
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Website: http://www.uccs.edu/itsecure
greg.williams () uccs edu<mailto:greg.williams () uccs edu>

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Greg 
Schmalhofer
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 9:11 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: [SECURITY] Event Log Monitoring - Recommendations

We do not currently have any product for event log and/or system log monitoring, reporting, and alerting, but are about 
to begin the process of reviewing various products to see what might be the best fit for our environment, needs, and 
budget(small). We are a mix of Windows (AD), HP Unix, and Linux servers with Exchange and Oracle. Please let me know if 
you are able to recommend any product or solution for monitoring logs and providing various reporting and alerting. At 
the recent Educause Security Professionals Conference several individuals had recommended QRadar. Any thoughts or 
feedback on these products and/or any others would be greatly appreciated.


-          QRadar (Q1Labs)

-          What's Up Log Management Suite (IPswitch)

-          GFI Events Manager (GFI)

-          Event Log Analyzer (ManageEngine)

-          StealthWatch (Lancope)

-          Others

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Thanks,
Greg

Greg Schmalhofer
Information Security Coordinator
Millersville University



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