Auditing and logging secure document transfers is an important practice for accountability, tracking activity, and detecting potential security incidents. This helps track document transfer activities, identify any suspicious behavior, and maintain compliance. Here are some key aspects to consider when auditing and logging the secure transmission of documents.
Enable Verbose Logging: Set up your document transfer systems, protocols, and security tools to create detailed logs of document transfer activity. This includes collecting information such as source and destination IP addresses, timestamps, user IDs, document names, and transfer status.
Centralized log management. Implement a centralized log management system to collect and store logs from various sources such as document servers, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and other security components. The centralization of logs makes it easier to analyze, correlate, and monitor document transfer activities.
Enforce log retention policies: Define log retention policies based on regulatory requirements and internal security policies. Decide how long logs are kept and enforce data protection rules. Review and archive logs regularly to free up storage space and maintain efficient log management.
Monitoring Log Entries: Regularly monitor log entries for document transfer activities. Set up automated monitoring systems or use security information and event management (SIEM) tools to analyze logs in real time. Implement alerts or notifications for specific events or patterns that may indicate suspicious or unauthorized document transfers.