Advanced
40 mins

Security Monitoring

Learn how to implement comprehensive security monitoring, including event tracking, intrusion detection, analytics, and alert management for your applications.

Prerequisites

  • Understanding of security concepts
  • Experience with logging systems
  • Knowledge of threat detection
  • Familiarity with analytics

Security Monitoring Overview

Security Monitoring Workflow

Visual representation of security monitoring components and data flow.

1

Security Event Monitoring

Set up comprehensive security event monitoring:

// Security event monitoring configuration
const securityMonitor = {
  // Event types to monitor
  eventTypes: {
    authentication: ['login', 'logout', 'failed_login'],
    authorization: ['access_denied', 'privilege_escalation'],
    data: ['read', 'write', 'delete'],
    system: ['config_change', 'service_start', 'service_stop']
  },

  async monitorEvents() {
    return {
      auth: await this.monitorAuthentication(),
      access: await this.monitorAuthorization(),
      data: await this.monitorDataAccess(),
      system: await this.monitorSystemChanges()
    };
  },

  async logSecurityEvent(event) {
    const entry = {
      timestamp: new Date(),
      type: event.type,
      severity: event.severity,
      source: event.source,
      user: event.user,
      action: event.action,
      resource: event.resource,
      status: event.status,
      metadata: event.metadata,
      ip_address: event.ip
    };

    await db.security_events.insert(entry);
    await this.analyzeEvent(entry);
  }
};
2

Intrusion Detection

Implement intrusion detection system:

// IDS configuration
const ids = {
  rules: {
    authentication: {
      failedAttempts: {
        threshold: 5,
        window: 300, // 5 minutes
        action: 'block_ip'
      },
      unusualPatterns: {
        timeWindow: 3600, // 1 hour
        maxDeviation: 2 // standard deviations
      }
    },
    requests: {
      rateLimit: {
        window: 60, // 1 minute
        maxRequests: 100
      },
      patterns: {
        sql_injection: /('|--|;|\\x|\\u|UNION|SELECT|FROM|WHERE)/i,
        xss: /(<script|javascript:|\\x|\\u|on\w+\s*=)/i,
        path_traversal: /(\.\.\/|\.\.\\|\.\.%2f)/i
      }
    }
  },

  async analyze(request) {
    const results = {
      authentication: await this.checkAuthentication(request),
      requests: await this.checkRequestPatterns(request),
      anomalies: await this.detectAnomalies(request)
    };

    if (this.shouldBlock(results)) {
      await this.blockRequest(request);
      await this.notifySecurityTeam(results);
    }

    return results;
  }
};
3

Security Analytics

Set up security analytics and reporting:

// Security analytics system
const securityAnalytics = {
  metrics: {
    async collect() {
      return {
        authentication: await this.getAuthMetrics(),
        access: await this.getAccessMetrics(),
        threats: await this.getThreatMetrics(),
        compliance: await this.getComplianceMetrics()
      };
    },

    async analyze() {
      const metrics = await this.collect();
      
      return {
        riskScore: this.calculateRiskScore(metrics),
        trends: this.analyzeTrends(metrics),
        anomalies: this.detectAnomalies(metrics),
        recommendations: this.generateRecommendations(metrics)
      };
    }
  },

  reporting: {
    async generateReport(timeframe) {
      const data = await this.collectReportData(timeframe);
      
      return {
        summary: this.generateSummary(data),
        details: this.generateDetailedReport(data),
        visualizations: this.generateCharts(data),
        recommendations: this.generateActionItems(data)
      };
    }
  }
};
4

Alert Management

Configure security alert system:

// Security alert configuration
const alertSystem = {
  // Alert levels and thresholds
  levels: {
    critical: {
      priority: 1,
      response_time: 900, // 15 minutes
      notification_channels: ['email', 'sms', 'slack', 'pagerduty']
    },
    high: {
      priority: 2,
      response_time: 3600, // 1 hour
      notification_channels: ['email', 'slack']
    },
    medium: {
      priority: 3,
      response_time: 14400, // 4 hours
      notification_channels: ['email']
    }
  },

  async processAlert(alert) {
    const level = this.determineAlertLevel(alert);
    const enrichedAlert = await this.enrichAlert(alert);
    
    await this.notifyTeam(enrichedAlert, level);
    await this.createIncident(enrichedAlert);
    
    if (level.priority <= 2) {
      await this.triggerAutomatedResponse(enrichedAlert);
    }
  },

  async enrichAlert(alert) {
    return {
      ...alert,
      context: await this.gatherContext(alert),
      relatedEvents: await this.findRelatedEvents(alert),
      recommendations: await this.generateRecommendations(alert)
    };
  }
};

Best Practices

Event Collection

Best practices for security monitoring:

  • Collect all security events
  • Implement proper logging
  • Use correlation IDs
  • Maintain audit trails

Alert Management

Effective alert handling:

  • Define clear thresholds
  • Implement alert routing
  • Reduce alert fatigue
  • Automate responses

Analysis

Security analysis practices:

  • Regular trend analysis
  • Anomaly detection
  • Threat correlation
  • Impact assessment

Monitoring Checklist

Event Collection

  • Authentication events
  • Authorization attempts
  • Data access logs
  • System changes
  • Security alerts

Analysis

  • Pattern detection
  • Anomaly identification
  • Threat correlation
  • Risk assessment
  • Trend analysis

Response

  • Alert routing
  • Incident creation
  • Automated responses
  • Team notification
  • Documentation

Common Issues

Monitoring Issues

Common monitoring problems:

  • High false positive rates
  • Alert fatigue
  • Missing events
  • Performance impact

Analysis Challenges

Analysis-related issues:

  • Data correlation
  • Pattern recognition
  • Resource usage
  • Storage management

Next Steps

Now that you understand security monitoring, explore these related topics: