3 Reasons to Use Audit Logs for SaaS

The tech world is beneficial for all its miraculous possibilities and every program we construct and share it through the cloud. The tracking system is facing new challenges every day. Security inside the cloud is a joint liability. Auditors require evidence of their procedures, tracking, and knowledge about incidents.

The audit log is the report which records accessed information and resources like target URLs, source lists, tags, and user account details. Though your SaaS provider provides the software and creativity, the burden for applying regulations and methodologies lies with your client. Salesforce, for example, offers its clients safe security and authorization processes, whereas the user may retain login credentials securely.

Your SaaS provider will produce case logs to the database via an accounting system. You are thus in charge of accessing and interpreting the data. So how do you have critical audit data within your network, like who did it, and when? Reach the audit logs which are used in the SaaS application to verify and trace action.

There are a million explanations for why audit logs are picture-perfect! we expect all our SaaS applications to catch each event, each registration, each shift in setup, and each device activity. Trying to fix a missed message, monitoring an incorrect shift in code, or filtering down the issue of a customer, without strong reports, is even more complicated. Detailed, read-only, discoverable, filterable, easily accessible, and available through API are nice audit logs. Although there are potentially millions of explanations why an audit logs will help, let’s focus on three key cases:

1. Keep track of change

A marketing administrator requires monitoring of key updates in a client’s profile. For example, if you still need to save audit logs for a prolonged period to meet regulatory requisites, we suggest you set up an automated mechanism that will retrieve audit logs daily and store them inside your own databases. Audit logs are preserved for 30 days, but then removed automatically.

The audit trail, when logging into the SaaS application, offers information about who did what and when. Many of those cases are user authentication, user interface updates, or security configuration changes. Such audit data is critical for diagnosing possible or live security problems, and it’s also a great enforcement service.

While triggering the audit feature, and since then onwards, interface audit logs will be maintained. We can also need to stream the audit logs for SaaS enterprise customers through the network security application for sensitive devices, or SIEM to get a “simple pane of glass” view of all that is happening in the area.

2. Monitor and report for compliance

A security administrator or threat management team would be responsible for the security policy of the company around digital evidence interpretation and measuring and reviewing information security.

Single Sign-On (SSO) is mandatory, which will have the right credentials to have access to most of the applications. Well before a user logs in to begin their day, wrestling with multiple passwords is indeed a strenuous task, unlike a proper password manager. An audit log allows security managers to monitor the access and operation logs across platforms. Usually, data is generated by automatic data extraction or an Application Server. Making such data easily available means eliminating the SaaS provider as a bottleneck in situations where simple inspection would be needed.

SaaS platforms need to have the appropriate data sets to display for us in a proper way. Great reporting not only will show us all what’s going on “live,” but will also let us go back to time looking for issues and developments. It must be able to display this with sortable and filterable views, simple charting / visualizing, and the opportunity to access statistics and dashboards.

Ripping data from multiple systems together is an acceleration amplifier that combines information from several programs into viewpoints that can significantly influence executive decisions. We happen to be a huge excel enthusiast for presenting data to all viewers.

3. Gain a holistic view

A CIO (Chief Information Officer) or CSO (Chief Security Officer) should have a comprehensive view of the crucial software activities. They possess the company’s internal/external auditing standards and must ensure safe processes are in place.

For obtaining data, the admin tool software must be used to maintain records of operation in a SaaS system. Remember that even audit logs are not an extremely powerful detection system, like those available in the Data-Driven Cloud Computing platforms. It offers raw data on such incidents without anticipating irregularities or notifying clients. Extracting and interpreting these data or combining them with any specific deviation detection console is left to clients.

It is extremely necessary to be able to allocate such administrative tasks without offering ‘the keys to the kingdom.’ We need approvals much more than an “all or nothing” strategy! An excellent service provider would do concentrated authorizations based on roles and allow us to custom tailor responsibilities. With each data structure, a section of a system or portion of the company executives should be able to allow various levels of authorization/access permission.

Trying to run Human resources to alter job roles, suggest, and not being able to develop API tokens, or allowing level 1 helpdesk to reset login credentials and not having to read the Chief executive email confirmation, is a big win both for security and efficiency. We want to see intelligent positions like: “out of the box” super-admin unlimited access to almost everything. Generally reserved for executive IT officials, only a handful (or less) of those profiles must be accessible. The standard method is to distinguish these influential profiles from standard logins and only use them when required.

Help Desk- update user account information and view log data, but don’t make modifications to the global configuration. You must offer adequate access to debugging significant problems to the Help Desk, but not quite enough to make major changes (without passing across an internal change process).

An audit report, also known as an audit trail, offers an event’s systematic record. If an auditor approaches to verify your adherence for regulatory reasons, he/she utilizes the audit report to verify for irregularities or lack of compliance. For instance, your data security protocols may force you to upgrade an operating system in less than 30 days of releasing a patch. An interruption that occurs from a premature operating system upgrade indicates non-compliance.

Conclusion

Audit logs allow the security team to recreate events after an issue occurs. The report gives the security admin the details needed to quickly recover from an infiltration. When a data breach results in a lawsuit, the audit log can provide proof to show effective event management. Periodic analysis of audit reports will help to provide insight into suspicious activity if you link them to real-time monitoring systems.

As a client, the audit logs show your responsibilities for protection and help to meet corporate governance project management prerequisites. It must provide the most efficient approach for linking logins across digital channels, technologies, and marketing systems, providing customers with the highest level of confidence that they target the appropriate potential customers while providing optimum reach.