The hotel network audit gateway is a quiet operating device in daily operations, and many people don't even feel it. But if there are security incidents that require going back to network behavior,——For example, residents complain of cyber fraud, public security authorities request that they investigate specific Internet records or find hotel networks used for illegal purposes.——The audit gateway will be followed"Run silently"It's become..."Key sources of evidence"The ability of the audit gateway to provide the required data quickly and accurately in the emergency response scenario directly determines hotel coping capacity and potential risks.
Common emergency scenarios supported by audit records
There are several typical types of emergencies that hotels may encounter that require audit records to support.——The public security and Internet services need to access the Internet records of specific guests at a given time when investigating cases.——The hotel needs to record the process of re-establishing its identity and accountability.——The IT team found during the inspection that network equipment was being visited abnormally, and there were a large number of suspicious traffic flows, which required audit records to trace the sources of intrusion and behaviour.——Staff use the network of hotels for irregularities or violations, and audit records are an important basis for investigation and accountability.
Preparations for emergency response
The effectiveness of emergency response depends to a large extent on normal preparedness. First is the availability of operational skills.——The person responsible for emergency response must be familiar with the query operation of the audit system and can quickly locate the required records after receiving instructions. If no one has operated the audit system in general, it will be a long time delay until urgent use is made. It is recommended that an operational exercise be conducted every six months to complete the search process using simulations. Second, access preparedness is applied.——In an emergency, the person who needs to access the record should be able to get permission quickly, not just to be stuck in the approval process.——When asked to do so, audit records within a specified time frame are required to be submitted and in what format they need to be exported and whether they meet the requirements of each other. These should be communicated with the receiving unit in advance and confirmed that they cannot be made available on site for interim decision.
Standard operating procedures following emergency response requests
Once a formal emergency request is received, the probability of error should be reduced in accordance with a fixed operating process. First step: confirmation of the legitimacy and scope of the request. External cooperation requires that a formal letter or instrument confirming the range of requests (specific time periods, specific persons, specified types of records) be provided without going beyond the range of information. Second step: determination of search conditions. Depending on the scope of the request, identification of key fields requiring query: time frame, IP address, MAC address, user name, target address etc., clearly list these conditions and start searching again without extrapolating. Third step: execution of query and verification of results. After the query is completed, a quick check is made: whether the records found are within the requested time frame, whether they are reasonable in number and if there is an apparent lack of data. Step 4: Keep extracts. Export the searched record to local backup to ensure that the original data is fully preserved. Step 5: Output and submission.
Validity of audit records as evidence
Whether the logs generated by the audit gateway can be used as valid evidence depends on several conditions: completeness of the logs——The records submitted must be raw data unmodified and, if there is a log integrity protection mechanism (Hashi, digital signature), proof of completeness should be provided together; accuracy of clocks——The clock of the audit system must be synchronized with NTP, deviations should be kept within acceptable limits and inaccuracies at time-stamps could affect the credibility of records as evidence; integrity of operating chains——From query to export to submission, each step has an operating record that proves that the record is not tampered with or selectively extracted. These conditions are not temporarily met and need to be built and maintained in daily carriers.
Retrieval improvements after emergency response
Each emergency response is completed with a review. The focus of the review is not on accountability, but on identifying weaknesses in the process: are there any problems beyond expectations during the querying process? Are some data out of use because of omissions in routine dimensions? Is the response time frame within reasonable limits and can be optimized? Is the output recording format adequate to meet requirements and where it needs to be adjusted earlier? The results should be implemented in process improvement and equipment configuration adjustments so that the next response can do better.
I'm not supposed to do anything.
Under the pressure of emergency response, several easy-to-be errors require particular attention: first, not to provide records without a formal instrument, even if the other party claims that it is guilty of an offence."It's urgent.", process cannot be omitted; and secondly, do not provide irrelevant records beyond the request, although the motive may be"Make it work."; third, do not delete or tamper with the original log——In some cases, it might be."It's good for the hotel to delete it."However, the de-entry is in fact an offence; fourth, there should be no handover records and local backups after the record has been submitted, which would require review in case of a matter, and no back-up would be very passive.
The response is not about how well the equipment is, but about whether it is normally prepared. Equipment does not jump out of hand at critical times and all response capacity comes from day-to-day mechanisms.