SOC 2 Evidence Pack
SOC 2 Evidence for Logging and Monitoring: What to Collect
Logging and monitoring evidence demonstrates detection coverage, alerting, and response to events.
Establish Your Audit Baseline
Get your readiness score, identify critical gaps, and unblock enterprise deal velocity in under 2 minutes.
What auditors look for
Auditors want to see design and operating effectiveness for this area—clear owners, repeatable processes, and evidence that the control works over time.
Evidence checklist
- •Log source inventory with retention settings
- •Alert rules and severity tiers
- •Sample alerts with timestamps and responders
- •Runbooks for common alerts
- •Evidence of log integrity or tamper resistance
- •Coverage of admin actions and authentication events
- •Monitoring dashboards for availability and errors
- •On-call schedules and escalation paths
- •Evidence of alert testing or drills
- •Integration with incident management tooling
Common mistakes to avoid
- •Incomplete log sources or missing retention settings
- •No proof alerts are reviewed or escalated
- •Gaps in admin or authentication logging
- •Runbooks not aligned to alert rules
- •No testing of alerting paths
How to produce evidence quickly
- List log sources and confirm retention and access controls.
- Provide sample alerts with evidence of review or response.
- Share runbooks and on-call schedules.
- Validate admin/auth logging coverage and include samples.
- Document how alerts integrate with incident management.
Continue Your Research
Explore related compliance intelligence and tools
FAQ
How long should we retain logs?
Depends on risk and contracts; 90 days online plus archive is common. Document your policy and settings.
Do we need to log admin actions?
Yes—include privileged actions, authentication, and key configuration changes.
How do we show alerts are handled?
Provide sample alerts with timestamps, responders, and resolutions. Include on-call rotations.
What about SIEM tuning?
Document rule reviews, suppression, and tuning cadence to reduce noise while keeping coverage.
Do we need to simulate incidents?
Tabletops or alert tests help show readiness. Provide evidence of recent exercises.
How do we secure logs?
Limit access, enable integrity controls where possible, and monitor for tampering.
Disclaimer: Compliance costs and timelines are estimates based on market benchmarks (AICPA fee surveys, vendor pricing indices 2025). Actual auditor fees and internal effort will vary based on your specific control environment, system complexity, and auditor selection. Consult with a qualified CPA for a formal statement of work.