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  3. AU-7

AU — AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

AU-7: AUDIT REVIEW, ANALYSIS, AND REPORTING

  • NIST 800-53R4 Membership AU-7:
  • MODERATE
  • HIGH

The information system provides an audit reduction and report generation capability that:

    • a. Supports on-demand audit review, analysis, and reporting requirements and after-the-fact investigations of security incidents; and
    • b. Does not alter the original content or time ordering of audit records.

SUPPLEMENTAL GUIDANCE

Audit reduction is a process that manipulates collected audit information and organizes such information in a summary format that is more meaningful to analysts. Audit reduction and report generation capabilities do not always emanate from the same information system or from the same organizational entities conducting auditing activities. Audit reduction capability can include, for example, modern data mining techniques with advanced data filters to identify anomalous behavior in audit records. The report generation capability provided by the information system can generate customizable reports. Time ordering of audit records can be a significant issue if the granularity of the timestamp in the record is insufficient.

CONTROL ENHANCEMENTS

AU-7 (1) AUDIT REDUCTION AND REPORT GENERATION | AUTOMATIC PROCESSING
  • NIST 800-53R4 Membership AU-7 (1):
  • MODERATE
  • HIGH

The information system provides the capability to process audit records for events of interest based on [Assignment: organization-defined audit fields within audit records].

Supplemental Guidance:

Events of interest can be identified by the content of specific audit record fields including, for example, identities of individuals, event types, event locations, event times, event dates, system resources involved, IP addresses involved, or information objects accessed. Organizations may define audit event criteria to any degree of granularity required, for example, locations selectable by general networking location (e.g., by network or subnetwork) or selectable by specific information system component.

RELATED CONTROLS: AU-7 (1)

AU-7 (2) AUDIT REDUCTION AND REPORT GENERATION | AUTOMATIC SORT AND SEARCH

The information system provides the capability to sort and search audit records for events of interest based on the content of [Assignment: organization-defined audit fields within audit records].

Supplemental Guidance:

Sorting and searching of audit records may be based upon the contents of audit record fields, for example: (i) date/time of events; (ii) user identifiers; (iii) Internet Protocol (IP) addresses involved in the event; (iv) type of event; or (v) event success/failure.

REFERENCES:

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