

For businesses that depend on Office 365, ignoring the vulnerabilities presented by a system without audits in place isn't an option. Unfortunately, O365 audit logs are sold as a premium item instead of built into the platform, making their use more complex and expensive.

To enable retention beyond 90 days, you'll need to have an Office 365 ES subscription or an Office 365 Advanced Compliance add-on license. Logs are kept for 90 or 365 days, or up to 10 years, depending on the license. An audit log retention policy lets you specify how long to retain audit logs in your organization. However, logging capabilities are not turned on by default and the retention period for O365 audit logs varies by license type. Office 365 audit logs are found in the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center. Yet, many companies have little or no knowledge of the best practices for Office 365 audit log collection and retention. It has become such a popular platform for business that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a report that identifies the configurations that leave O365 users vulnerable. Office 365 is used by over a million companies worldwide. The ability to audit the actions that take place through such programs is as important as any other part of your organizational network. Many businesses and organizations depend on third-party programs and software to complete daily tasks and automate workflows. These records also help organizations in specific industries maintain and prove compliance with national and local regulations.

In the event of a discrete cyberattack or data breach, it's impossible to know the extent of what was affected without reliable logs. It's essentially a chronological list of who did what and when. An audit log is a time-stamped record of all actions that take place across your network.

They provide visibility into your network and allow security analysts to investigate vulnerabilities and the extent of damage after an attack. Audit logs are an essential part of cybersecurity for any organization.
