Exabeam Adds New Global Log Retention Capabilities to New-Scale SIEM™

Effective log retention is crucial for cybersecurity management, providing organizations with the ability to store and manage log data efficiently. Exabeam Global Log Retention offers a powerful solution by enabling organizations to define and enforce retention periods, ensuring valuable logs are stored for the appropriate duration while eliminating unnecessary storage of irrelevant logs. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of log retention for cybersecurity and highlight the benefits of implementing Global Log Retention.

Enhancing log storage management

Global Log Retention simplifies log storage management by allowing organizations to explicitly define the retention period for log data. This feature empowers administrators to set up the oldest age of log data stored in long-term search or storage, ensuring logs are retained for the desired duration. 

Easy setup in less than a minute

Setting up Global Log Retention is a simple yet crucial step to optimize your log storage experience. Simply login to your Exabeam Security Operations Platform and navigate to Global Log Retention from the navigation bar/settings. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to tailor your log retention settings according to your needs.

The crucial role of log retention in cybersecurity

Log retention plays an essential role in effective cybersecurity for several reasons. Logs serve as valuable sources of information during investigations and incident response. They enable information security professionals to trace the sequence of events leading to a compromise, identify attack sources, and understand the techniques employed. Without logs, conducting thorough investigations and mounting appropriate responses to security incidents becomes significantly challenging.

Logs also provide valuable forensic evidence for post-incident analysis. By reconstructing the timeline of events and tracking attacker actions, cybersecurity experts can determine the extent of a compromise, identify vulnerabilities, and prevent future incidents. Compliance with specific regulations and frameworks is another critical aspect where log retention plays a pivotal role. Failure to retain logs for the required duration, as mandated by regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), can lead to legal and financial consequences.

Additionally, logs play a crucial role in monitoring and detecting suspicious activities. Real-time analysis of logs allows organizations to identify patterns, detect anomalies, and proactively respond to potential threats. Logs enable the early detection and mitigation of security incidents, strengthening an organization’s overall security posture.

Best practices for log retention

The retention period for logs may vary based on legal requirements, industry regulations, business needs, and the log’s relevance to security incidents. Security best practices generally recommend retaining logs for a minimum of 90 days to a year. However, organizations may choose to retain critical logs for longer periods, particularly in highly regulated industries like finance, education, or healthcare.

Conclusion

Global Log Retention, a new feature in the Exabeam Security Operations Platform, provides organizations with a powerful tool to effectively manage their long-term log storage. By explicitly defining retention periods for each log source, organizations can optimize log storage, ensuring the appropriate retention of valuable logs while eliminating unnecessary storage of irrelevant ones. 

The significance of log retention in cybersecurity cannot be understated, as logs serve as valuable sources of information for investigation, incident response, forensic analysis, compliance, and monitoring. By retaining and analyzing critical log types, organizations can enhance their ability to detect and respond to security threats effectively. With Global Log Retention, organizations can streamline their log storage management and strengthen their overall cybersecurity stance.

Read more: 

• What Is Log Management? Process, Tools, and Tips for Success
• Log Analytics: A Practical Guide
• Azure Log Analytics: the Basics and a Quick Tutorial
• Log Analysis Tools: Key Capabilities and 5 Tools You Should Know
• Top 6 Log Management Tools and How to Choose
• Splunk Log Analysis with Log Observer: 5 Key Capabilities
• AWS Log Analytics: Cloud Services and Reference Architecture
• 7 Critical Log Management Best Practices