CIS Controls v8 8.2 — Collect Audit Logs

What this control requires

Collect audit logs. Ensure that logging, per the enterprise's audit log management process, has been enabled across enterprise assets.

In plain English

Collect audit logs. In practice, this means you can prove you ensure audit log management process-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

The CIS Controls are an industry-vetted, prioritised defence: skipping a safeguard widens the attack surface that the safeguards above and below it assume is closed. Audit frameworks (FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA) all cite CIS as evidence of due care.

This control is rated critical in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.

What an auditor looks for

A CIS-aligned reviewer wants to see (a) which Implementation Group you are targeting, (b) a documented owner for the safeguard, and (c) a tooling or process artefact (config, scan output, ticket) that proves the safeguard runs on the cadence the control demands.

Within Detect, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control 8.2) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Logging Monitoring

AWS. Org-trail CloudTrail to a central log archive account, GuardDuty in every region, and Security Hub for cross-source correlation.

Azure. Pipe every diagnostic setting into a central Log Analytics workspace; onboard Microsoft Sentinel for SIEM/SOAR.

GCP. Aggregate audit logs in a dedicated logging project with sink to BigQuery; enable Security Command Center Premium and route findings to Chronicle SIEM.

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

• Ensure. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Log. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Collect Audit. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: audit log management process, logs, enterprise.

Evidence to collect

• Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
• Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Collect Audit Logs.

Common pitfalls

• Per-account logging that nobody stitches together at the org level — incidents that cross accounts go undetected for days.
• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.15 — Logging
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AU-16 — Cross-Organizational Audit Logging
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.3.4 — Response to Audit Logging Process Failures
• BSI C5:2020 COM-02 — Policy for planning and conducting audits
• HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D) — Security Management Process -Information System Activity Review

Related controls in CIS Controls v8

• Control 8.1 — Establish and Maintain an Audit Log Management Process
• Control 8.3 — Ensure Adequate Audit Log Storage
• Control 8.6 — Collect DNS Query Audit Logs
• Control 8.7 — Collect URL Request Audit Logs
• Control 3.5 — Securely Dispose of Data
• Control 7.1 — Establish and Maintain a Vulnerability Management Process

References

• Center for Internet Security — CIS Controls v8
• Catalogue identifier: Control 8.2

Topics: governance risklogging monitoringpolicy management