Zen 2.0

Jim Sterne from MarketingProfs.com has written a very interesting article on the problems organizations have encountered in the world of web analytics.
In web analytics, data come from many different sources including content side, application side, e-commerce side. A lot of the data gathered from the various sources are actually logs!
Web analytics applications, among various [...]

An event is an observable occurrence in an information system that actually happened at some point in time.

A TCP/IP connection
An email
A user login

An incident is an adverse event in an information system - includes the significant threat of an adverse event.

Implies harm or attempt to harm
An attempt to gain unauthorized access
Unwanted denial-of-service
Changes without owner’s knowledge, [...]

One of the more interesting features that SIM vendors have been adding is the integration of policies into their products.
Most of the SIM vendors have been integrating technical policies into the product to provide rapid response to network attacks. For example, the SIM product detects an attack and sends a policy update request to a [...]

Nari Kannan from Ajira Technologies has written an interesting piece on the frustration of business users when it comes to reporting.
I can’t agree more and I think the operational users share the same frustrations.
First, in order to extract value out of the log ocean requires the operational users to find out whether the data they [...]

One of the most talked about regulations these days is obviously Sarbanes-Oxley. Below is a quick summary of Section 302 and 404. Remember, if you are a CEO or CFO, don’t screw up. Otherwise you will be fined up to $1 million and/or up to 10 years in jail.
Section 302
Proper documentation and disclosure of [...]

Intelligent Enterprise’s Cindi Howson did a great review of several BI tools in the market. The review series took a close look at features and functions critical in the business intelligence (BI) product evaluation. Cindi used 6 different criteria to evaluate these products.
Most of the criteria Cindi used can translate directly to log analysis. [...]

According to the Insider Abuse Study performed by U.S. Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute’s CERT® Coordination Center (CERT/CC),
In 74% of the cases, after detection, the insiders’ identities were obtained using system logs.

Microsoft Windows maintains atleast three event logs:
- Security Log – Tracks events such as logon, logoff, change to access rights, and system startup and shutdown.
- Application Log – Records events logged by applications, such as the failure of MS SQL to access a database.
- System Log – Records events logged by the operating system or [...]

BAM, or Business Activity Monitoring, is an emerging technology (can you call it emerging if it’s already 2-3 years old?) defines the capability of monitoring and reporting, in real-time, all business events. For example, deploying a BAM solution can help a bank monitor, in real-time, the transactions that are going through the system and reporting [...]

Most of the logs generated in a corporate infrastructure are not reviewed. They are either archived and never looked at, or worse, never even retrieved and archived. Much of the logs generated by devices and applications evaporate into the ether and not missed.
There are many reasons why most of these logs and events are [...]