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

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