Log management for absolute beginners

New to log management and cybersecurity? Or, maybe you're already a pro, but you're looking for a way to explain log management to someone who is? Either way, you're in the right place.

What are logs?

Let's start offline.

Imagine that every time you do, think, or say anthing, you write an entry about it on a slip of paper, like this:

Once you've written an entry, you put it into a bag where you keep these slips of paper. You can imagine that, even if you were very efficient at keeping track of your day this way, you would end up with enormous amounts of information, your bag full of thousands of little pieces of paper after just one day.

What if you needed to find a specific entry? You'd need to look through thousands of individual entries. Or, what if you wanted to find every thought you had about being hungry? You'd be reading and sorting little slips of paper for hours on end.

So, what does this have to do with cybersecurity? These journal entries are like logs.

A log is a record of any singular event that happens in a computer or network system, such as a user signing in, an internet connection being made, or an application stopping.

Consider these sample logs:

While each individual log represents just one tiny bit of information, collecting logs overall provides a lot of important insight into a computer system. However, logs without some way to sort and search through them aren't very useful, similar to a bag full of loose slips of paper recounting the events of your life. That's where log management comes in.

What is log management?

Let's go back to the handwritten entries about what you do, say, and think day-to-day. Instead of writing these entries on loose slips of paper and keeping them in a bag, you type them into an app on your phone. Using this app, you can search for entries that include any word, or look at entries from just a specified timeframe.

For example, you remember laughing very hard on Wednesday afternoon, but you don't remember why. You can search for the word "laugh" and specify the timeframe as Wednesday afternoon, then read the entries that came beforehand.

Or, you might want to track what time you usually go to bed, so you search for entries including the word "sleep." Sure, you can look through every timestamp yourself, but this app can even create a chart for you so you can see this information laid out visually, rather than by reading through all of your entries.

These helpful investigative activites are a lot like what a log management program does. Log management is the process of collecting, storing, organizing, and analyzing all the data that a system or network produces. It's what makes having all that data valuable to you.

With a powerful log management system, you can pinpoint the root causes of issues, monitor for suspicious activities, and optimize the performance of your systems. This means that you can, for example, quickly find out why an application crashed at a specific time, identify who attempted to access restricted areas on your network, or even predict when your systems might need maintenance before problems occur.

In essence, log management transforms a chaotic sea of data into something useful and informative, where every piece of information is at your fingertips, ready to provide insights, support decision-making, and maintain the health and security of your digital environment.

TeskaLabs LogMan.io

Our log management system, TeskaLabs LogMan.io, makes it easy to collect, archive, and analyze your logs, as well as comply with European cybersecurity directives. Contact us to request a demo! We'll be happy to answer questions and get you started with LogMan.io.

Want to learn more?

If you want to know how we identify cybersecurity threats, check out this beginner-friendly intro to our powerful Correlator tool.