Logging and Log Management: The Authoritative Guide to Understanding the Concepts Surrounding Logging and Log Management

by Anton A. Chuvakin, Kevin J. Schmidt, Christopher Phillips

Overview

Logging and Log Management: The Authoritative Guide to Understanding the Concepts Surrounding Logging and Log Management introduces information technology professionals to the basic concepts of logging and log management. It provides tools and techniques to analyze log data and detect malicious activity. The book consists of 22 chapters that cover the basics of log data; log data sources; log storage technologies; a case study on how syslog-ng is deployed in a real environment for log collection; covert logging; planning and preparing for the analysis log data; simple analysis techniques; and tools and techniques for reviewing logs for potential problems. The book also discusses statistical analysis; log data mining; visualizing log data; logging laws and logging mistakes; open source and commercial toolsets for log data collection and analysis; log management procedures; and attacks against logging systems. In addition, the book addresses logging for programmers; logging and compliance with regulations and policies; planning for log analysis system deployment; cloud logging; and the future of log standards, logging, and log analysis. This book was written for anyone interested in learning more about logging and log management. These include systems administrators, junior security engineers, application developers, and managers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597496353
Publisher:	Syngress Publishing
Publication date:	12/01/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	462
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kevin J. Schmidt is a senior manager at Dell SecureWorks, Inc., an industry leading MSSP, which is part of Dell. He is responsible for the design and development of a major part of the company’s SIEM platform. This includes data acquisition, correlation and analysis of log data.

Prior to SecureWorks, Kevin worked for Reflex Security where he worked on an IPS engine and anti-virus software. And prior to this he was a lead developer and architect at GuardedNet, Inc.,which built one of the industry’s first SIEM platforms. Kevin is also a commissioned officer in the United States Navy Reserve (USNR).

Kevin has over 19 years of experience in software development and design, 11 of which have been in the network security space. He holds a B.Sc. in computer science.

Christopher Phillips is a manager and senior software developer at Dell SecureWorks, Inc. He is responsible for the design and development of the company's Threat Intelligence service platform. He also has responsibility for a team involved in integrating log and event information from many third party providers for customers to have their information analyzed by the Dell SecureWorks systems and security professionals. Prior to Dell SecureWorks, Christopher has worked for McKesson and Allscripts where he worked with clients on HIPAA compliance and security and integrating healthcare systems. Christopher has over 18 years of experience in software development and design. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and an MBA.

Dr. Anton Chuvakin is a recognized security expert in the field of log

management and PCI DSS compliance. He is an author of the books "Security Warrior" and "PCI

Compliance" and has contributed to many others, while also publishing dozens of papers on

log management, correlation, data analysis, PCI DSS, and security management. His blog

(http://www.securitywarrior.org) is one of the most popular in the industry.

Additionaly, Anton teaches classes and presents at many security conferences across the world

and he works on emerging security standards and serves on the advisory boards of

several security start-ups. Currently, Anton is developing his security consulting practice,

focusing on logging and PCI DSS compliance for security vendors and Fortune 500 organizations.

Anton earned his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Logs, Trees, Forest: the Big Picture

Chapter 2 What is a Log?

Chapter 3 Generating Logs

Chapter 4 Log Storage Technologies

Chapter 5 Case study: syslog-ng

Chapter 6 Covert logging

Chapter 7 Analysis Goals, Planning and Preparation: What Are We Looking for?

Chapter 8 Simple Analysis Techniques

Chapter 9 Filtering, Matching and Correlation

Chapter 10 Statistical Analysis

Chapter 11 Log Data Mining

Chapter 12 Reporting and Summarization

Chapter 13 Visualizing Log Data

Chapter 14 Logging Laws and Logging Mistakes

Chapter  15 Tools for Log Analysis and Collection

Chapter 16 Log Management Procedures: Escalation, Response

Chapter 17 Attacks against logging systems

Chapter 18 Logging for Programmers

Chapter 19 Logs and Compliance

Chapter 20 Planning Your Own Log Analysis System

Chapter 21 Cloud Logging

Chapter 22 Log Standard and Future Trends

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A comprehensive guide to log management written by the experts who wrote the rules.

Editorial Reviews

"The authors provide a way to simplify the complex process of analyzing large quantities of varied logs. The log management and log analysis approaches they recommend are addressed in detail." —Reference and Research Book News, August 2013

"…Anton Chuvakin and his co-authors Kevin Schmidt and Christopher Phillips bring significant real-world experience to the reader and an important book on the topic....For those that want to find the gold in their logs…[it] is a great resource that shows how to maximize the gold that often lays hidden in your large stores of log data." —RSA Conference, December 2012

From the Publisher