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Created by Claudiu Tabac - © 2026
This material is open for educational and research use. Commercial use without explicit permission from the author is not allowed.
SCC-05: Logging, Monitoring & Detection
Establishing enterprise-wide visibility through comprehensive security event observation and threat identification
The Foundation of Security Visibility
SCC-05 defines how security-relevant activity is recorded, observed, and detected across the enterprise. This cluster determines whether your organization can see what is happening in real-time, recognize abnormal behavior patterns, and respond decisively before incidents escalate into major breaches.
In the ECIL - Enterprise Control Interpretation Lens framework, logging and monitoring are not merely operational add-ons or compliance checkboxes. They represent foundational visibility capabilities that enable effective governance, organizational accountability, and rapid incident response. Without these capabilities properly implemented, security teams operate in the dark, making critical decisions based on incomplete or outdated information.
The core purpose of SCC-05 ensures that security-relevant events are consistently logged across all systems, monitoring provides meaningful visibility rather than overwhelming noise, detection capabilities successfully identify both abnormal and malicious behavior, and visibility directly supports governance, response activities, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Record
Consistent Logging
Security events captured comprehensively
Observe
Active Monitoring
Real-time visibility into system behavior
Detect
Threat Identification
Abnormal activity recognition
Logging Strategy & Coverage
This capability area examines whether logging is intentional, complete, and aligned with risk. Effective logging strategy ensures that all security-relevant events are captured consistently, providing the foundation for detection and forensic investigation.
Event Definition
Clear identification of security-relevant events across the enterprise, establishing what must be logged and why it matters for security operations.
Comprehensive Coverage
Consistent logging across identities, assets, networks, and applications, ensuring no critical systems operate without visibility.
Centralization & Retention
Aggregation of logs into secure, centralized repositories with appropriate retention periods that support both operational needs and compliance requirements.
Integrity Protection
Safeguarding log data integrity and availability to ensure tamper-proof audit trails and reliable forensic evidence.

Critical Principle: Logging must be driven by detection needs and investigative requirements, not simply by default system settings or vendor configurations.
Monitoring & Situational Awareness
This capability area focuses on how logged data is observed and contextualized to create actionable intelligence. Raw logs alone provide no value-they must be actively monitored and enriched with context to support decision-making.
Effective monitoring requires real-time and near-real-time observation capabilities, sophisticated correlation across multiple data sources to identify patterns, strategic reduction of false positives through contextual analysis, and careful alignment of monitoring priorities with actual business risk.
Monitoring becomes effective only when it produces actionable awareness that enables security teams to make informed decisions and take timely action.
01
Data Collection
Aggregate logs from all critical sources
02
Correlation
Connect events across systems and timeframes
03
Contextualization
Enrich alerts with business and threat intelligence
04
Prioritization
Focus on high-risk, high-impact scenarios
05
Action
Enable rapid, informed response decisions
Detection Engineering & Analytics
This capability area evaluates whether the organization can identify abnormal or malicious activity through sophisticated detection logic and continuous improvement. Detection engineering transforms raw monitoring data into security intelligence.
Use Cases
Defined Scenarios
Clear detection use cases mapped to threat models and attack patterns
Behavioral Detection
Anomaly Analysis
Behavioral and statistical methods to identify deviations from normal patterns
Signal Coverage
Multi-Layer Visibility
Detection across identity, endpoint, network, and application layers
Continuous Tuning
Adaptive Logic
Regular validation and refinement as attacker techniques evolve
"Detection must evolve as attacker behavior evolves. Static detection rules quickly become obsolete as threat actors adapt their techniques to evade known signatures and patterns."
Alert Handling & Escalation
This capability area examines how detections are triaged, escalated, and acted upon. Even the most sophisticated detection capabilities deliver no value if alerts are ignored, misrouted, or lost in overwhelming volume.
Effective alert handling requires clear severity classification systems that distinguish critical threats from routine events, well-defined response and escalation paths that ensure appropriate expertise engagement, seamless integration with formal incident response processes, and robust feedback loops that continuously improve detection logic based on response outcomes.
Detection without response is fundamentally ineffective-organizations must ensure that every significant alert triggers appropriate action.
1
Alert Generation
Detection rule triggers based on suspicious activity
2
Initial Triage
Severity assessment and false positive filtering
3
Investigation
Analysis to determine scope and impact
4
Escalation
Routing to appropriate response teams
5
Response Action
Containment, remediation, and recovery
6
Feedback Loop
Detection refinement based on outcomes
Governance, Metrics & Oversight
This capability area focuses on whether monitoring and detection are governed and measured as strategic organizational capabilities. Like any critical business function, security visibility requires formal governance structures, performance metrics, and continuous improvement mechanisms.
1
Coverage Oversight
Executive-level visibility into logging and detection coverage across all critical assets and systems, identifying gaps that create risk.
2
Effectiveness Metrics
Quantitative and qualitative measures of detection performance, including mean-time-to-detect, false positive rates, and coverage completeness.
3
Management Reporting
Regular reporting to leadership on visibility gaps, detection capabilities, and improvement initiatives with clear accountability.
4
Review Cycles
Structured programs for periodic assessment and enhancement of monitoring and detection capabilities based on evolving threats.
Visibility capabilities must be governed with the same rigor applied to other critical organizational functions, ensuring they remain effective, efficient, and aligned with business objectives.
Regulatory & Assurance Alignment
SCC-05 is assessed across all regulatory frameworks and assurance standards, even when expressed using different terminology and control structures. The fundamental requirement for visibility remains consistent across compliance regimes.
ISO/IEC 27001
Logging and monitoring controls focusing on event recording, security information management, and operational monitoring requirements.
NIS2 Directive
Detection and incident awareness requirements emphasizing early warning capabilities and continuous monitoring obligations.
DORA
Monitoring and operational resilience expectations for financial entities, including real-time detection and situational awareness.
SOC 2
Security event detection criteria within the Common Criteria, particularly monitoring and incident detection requirements.
Each regulatory lens evaluates whether the organization can observe and detect security-relevant activity in a manner appropriate to its risk profile and operational context. The ECIL framework maps these diverse requirements to unified capability assessments.
Evidence & Failure Modes
Evidence Perspective
Evidence supporting SCC-05 demonstrates visibility, detection capability, and operational use-not merely tool deployment or configuration screenshots. Assessors seek proof of operational effectiveness.
Representative evidence includes:
  • Logging standards and technical configurations demonstrating comprehensive coverage
  • Monitoring dashboards and alert definitions showing active surveillance
  • Detection use case documentation with validation records
  • Alert handling and escalation records proving operational response
  • Metrics and reports demonstrating continuous improvement
Common Failure Modes
Organizations frequently encounter predictable failures in visibility capabilities that undermine security effectiveness:
Incomplete Logging
Critical systems excluded from logging scope, creating dangerous blind spots
Alert Fatigue
Excessive noise obscuring genuine threats through overwhelming false positive volume
Detection Gaps
Blind spots in detection coverage leaving attack vectors unmonitored
Response Disconnect
Alerts not acted upon or escalated due to unclear ownership or broken processes
These failures often delay threat detection and significantly amplify incident impact when breaches occur.
Implementing SCC-05 in Your Organization
Use SCC-05 as a comprehensive framework to strengthen your enterprise security visibility and detection capabilities across all operational contexts.
1
Assess Current Visibility
Evaluate whether security visibility supports timely, informed decision-making and rapid incident response across your organization.
2
Align with Risk
Ensure detection capabilities are prioritized according to enterprise risk profile, focusing resources on the most critical threats.
3
Map Regulatory Requirements
Interpret diverse monitoring requirements across multiple regulatory frameworks using unified capability assessments.
4
Identify Critical Gaps
Discover visibility gaps that undermine governance, response effectiveness, and compliance obligations.
5
Drive Continuous Improvement
Establish feedback loops that continuously enhance detection logic, monitoring coverage, and operational effectiveness.
SCC-05 ensures that security is observable, measurable, and actionable-transforming raw data into strategic intelligence that protects the enterprise.
Created by Claudiu Tabac — © 2026
This material is open for educational and research use. Commercial use without explicit permission from the author is not allowed.