Of all foundational elements for information security, logging requires far more care and feeding than its fellow cornerstones such as encryption, authentication or permissions. Log data must be captured, correlated and analyzed to be of any use. Due to typical log volume, software tools to manage log events is a must-have for businesses of any size.
Traditionally, log events have been processed and handled using security information and event management (SIEM) tools. SIEM systems at the minimum provide a central repository for log data and tools to analyze, monitor and alert on relevant events. SIEM tools (and data analysis capabilities) have evolved more sophisticated capabilities such as machine learning and the ability to ingest third-party threat data.