What are audit logs?

Audit Logs is used to capture events that can show who did what activity and how the system behaved. An administrator or developer can examine the audit log to get a complete picture of normal and abnormal events on your website or mobile application.

How do Audit Logs help in Security?

There are many legal concerns that companies must adhere to, and audit logs are an official record that we can provide when an auditor asks for proof of compliance.  Security is another area in which audit logs can be invaluable. Now that even the most sensitive data is accessible via the internet, audit logs are critical. Having a public-facing web service is the equivalent of allowing billions of people to “rattle the doorknob" just to see if they can get in. Even with the strongest security measures in place, it is still very useful to know the frequency and source of potential attacks. An audit log can capture this type of data.

Audit logs enable your security team to reconstruct events after a problem occurs. The documentation provides your security administrator with the information needed to recover rapidly from an intrusion.

Audit logs and compliance

In terms of compliance, many industries such as finance, accounting, legal, government, and healthcare require that sensitive information be shared in a secure fashion and are only made accessible to authorized people. Audit logging helps keep these industries compliant. Having audit logs on a website is mandatory for e-commerce websites to be PCI DSS compliant.

How do Audit Logs help in Data Privacy?

Your administrator can routinely check the website or mobile app for abnormal behavior to detect a data breach. By adding Audit Log as a technical measure, you are complying with PDPA guidelines to enable you to pinpoint the breach and contain the situation.

Team Oasis recommeds that you should ask your singapore website or mobile app development vendor how you can access the audit logs in your system.

If there are no audit log is in place, it is a red flag that your web or mobile app vendor might not be trained in data privacy or data security protection which might led you to an impending data breach.

Personal data breach caused by inadequate security measure will cause you a hefty fine in Singapore.