The lack of standardized data formats across logs is the most significant concern for an IS auditor. Non-standardized logs severely hinder the ability to aggregate, correlate, and analyze security events across different systems and applications. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform effective automated monitoring, trace the sequence of events during a security incident, or conduct meaningful forensic analysis. This fundamental flaw undermines the primary purpose of log management, which is to provide a coherent and actionable view of operational and security-related activities throughout the IT environment.

A. Growing log file size is an expected operational trend, primarily representing a capacity and retention policy issue, not a fundamental control weakness.

B. Logging critical events to immutable files is a security best practice that ensures log integrity and is considered a control strength, not a concern.

C. It is common and often necessary for complex applications to generate multiple log files for different functions; this is manageable with proper log aggregation tools.

1. ISACA. (2019). CISA Review Manual

27th Edition. Page 238. The manual states that for logs to be useful for analysis and to create a proper audit trail

they should be "in a consistent format." A lack of standardization directly violates this principle.

2. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2006). Special Publication 800-92: Guide to Computer Security Log Management. Section 3.1.2

"Log Generation." This guide explicitly states

"Organizations should also establish standardized log formats

such as the same timestamp format

for all logs. Standardization makes it much easier to perform automated log analysis."

3. Kent

K.

& Souppaya

M. (2006). The challenges of log analysis. CrossTalk

The Journal of Defense Software Engineering

19(5)

21-25. The article highlights that a major challenge in log analysis is the "lack of a standard logging format

" which complicates the correlation of events from diverse sources.