Log Management Policy

Purpose

This policy defines the requirements for collecting, storing, analyzing, and disposing of security logs within the Security Operations Center (SOC). It also establishes how AI-assisted monitoring is used to enhance threat detection, investigations, incident response, and regulatory compliance.

Scope

This policy applies to all SOC-managed:

• Systems
• Applications
• Network devices
• Servers and endpoints
• Cloud environments
• AI-based monitoring and correlation tools

It covers any asset that generates, processes, or stores security-relevant logs.

Log Collection

• Collect logs from all critical infrastructure components, including firewalls, IDS/IPS, servers, endpoints, authentication systems, and cloud platforms.
• Include AI-generated event summaries, anomaly scores, and correlation results as supplemental log artifacts.
• Ensure all systems use synchronized NTP timestamps to maintain accurate event correlation.

Log Forwarding Requirement

All endpoints and servers must:

• Run the Wazuh agent
• Forward security-relevant logs to the Wazuh Manager in real time

Retention & Storage

• Maintain 90 days of raw logs in hot storage for immediate analysis and triage.
• Archive logs for 12 months in secure, encrypted cold storage to meet compliance and audit requirements.
• Original logs may not be modified by AI tools.
• AI-generated insights must be stored separately and linked by unique reference identifiers.

Monitoring & Analysis

• AI tools may perform real-time correlation, anomaly detection, prioritization, and summarization.
• Human SOC analysts must verify all AI-generated alerts before escalation.

• Maintain an audit trail documenting:

• AI-driven decisions

• Model versions
• Confidence scores
• Any analyst overrides

Access Control

• Log access is restricted to authorized SOC personnel only.
• AI monitoring systems must operate using least-privilege service accounts.
• All access to logs must be logged and reviewed monthly for unauthorized activity.

Integrity & Security

• Protect logs in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher.
• Encrypt logs at rest using AES-256 or an equivalent approved standard.
• Use hashing or digital signature mechanisms to detect tampering.
• AI-generated outputs must remain traceable and validated against the original log data.

Alerting & Escalation

• AI tools may automatically generate alerts for high-confidence security events.
• Events that are ambiguous or low-confidence must be escalated to analysts for manual investigation.
• Escalation procedures must be documented and tested quarterly.

Disposal

• Logs that exceed required retention periods must be securely deleted using NIST-approved destruction methods.
• AI training datasets created from log data must follow identical retention and destruction requirements.

Compliance & Review

• This policy must align with:

• SOC 2

• ISO 27001
• University guidelines
• Any applicable regulatory standards

The policy must be reviewed and updated continuously for class or whenever significant changes occur in SOC operations or AI monitoring capabilities.