Log for the Questions You Must Answer
Design log collection around operational questions, retention needs, and review responsibilities.
A log plan should start with questions, not tools. For a critical administration surface, ask what you need to prove: account creation, privilege assignment, configuration change, data deletion, remote login, service restart, backup failure, or policy bypass. Then decide where that evidence originates and how long it remains useful. Three design choices make logs operational. First, centralize the events that matter so a compromised or failed host does not erase the trail. Second, protect integrity and time synchronization so the timeline can be trusted. Third, separate retention by value: high-volume diagnostics may be short lived, while audit and privileged activity…
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