Certified - CompTIA Cloud+

In cloud environments, visibility into user actions and access attempts is crucial for maintaining security, ensuring compliance, and responding to incidents. Two key types of logs serve this purpose: audit logs and authentication logs. Audit logs provide a record of system-level changes, administrative actions, and resource events, while authentication logs document who attempted to access what, and whether the attempt was successful. Together, they form the basis of operational accountability in the cloud. This episode explains what should be tracked, how it should be recorded, and how these logs contribute to secure cloud operations.
The Cloud Plus exam emphasizes understanding what events should be logged and how to recognize gaps in coverage or misconfigured logging policies. Candidates are expected to know which logs are critical, where they are generated, and how they are analyzed. Logging is not just a passive record—it is an active control that supports alerting, auditing, and forensics. By learning how audit and authentication logs function, candidates will be better prepared for real-world operational responsibilities and exam questions involving access, policy enforcement, and system integrity.
An audit log is a structured record of system activity that shows who performed what action, on which resource, and when. These logs are generated by cloud control planes, operating systems, and application platforms. They track administrative activity such as creating virtual machines, modifying security groups, or changing user roles. Audit logs support forensic investigations, enable compliance with legal standards, and allow operations teams to verify that changes followed approved procedures.
Typical events captured in audit logs include resource creation or deletion, policy changes, permission updates, and service configurations. These logs also include access to data, including which accounts downloaded files or invoked sensitive A P I calls. Deployment events, such as the launch of containers or execution of automation scripts, are also logged. Cloud providers often offer granular filtering to isolate specific types of audit events, such as those related to identity, storage, or networking.
Authentication logs are focused on who accessed the system and whether they were successful. These logs show login attempts, both successful and failed, across various interfaces—such as web portals, A P I calls, and S S H sessions. They capture the username, timestamp, source I P address, and authentication method used. These details are critical for detecting brute force attacks, credential abuse, or unauthorized logins from unusual locations.
Audit and authentication logs serve complementary purposes. While authentication logs tell you whether a user gained access, audit logs tell you what they did after access was granted. Both must be analyzed together to gain full visibility into user behavior and system changes. For example, a failed login followed by a successful login from a different I P may indicate account compromise. Without both logs, investigators may miss the full context.
Cloud-native services generate logs from various components, including identity management, compute engines, storage systems, and networking services. These logs may be accessed through dedicated interfaces or exported to centralized systems. Cloud directories and federated identity services, such as Single Sign-On providers, also produce logs that capture external authentication attempts. Candidates should know where these logs originate and how to access them through consoles or A P Is.
Metadata such as timestamp, source I P, and user agent enhances the value of logs. Timestamps allow analysts to correlate events across systems. Source I P addresses identify the geographic origin or corporate network of a request. User agent strings show what browser, command-line tool, or script was used to initiate the action. Combined, these details allow administrators to trace suspicious behavior, differentiate between human and automated actions, and identify potentially malicious patterns.
To be effective, logs must be tamper-evident and protected from unauthorized modification or deletion. Append-only log storage ensures that records cannot be altered after creation. Some cloud platforms support tamper-proof log storage by default, using cryptographic hashing or write-once storage methods. For compliance with regulatory standards, logs must be immutable and retained for the required duration. Cloud Plus candidates must know how to secure logs and validate their integrity.
Audit logging is often required by law. Regulatory frameworks like H I P A A, P C I D S S, G D P R, and S O X define specific logging requirements. These include what events must be captured, how long logs must be retained, and how they must be protected. Non-compliance can lead to fines, data breaches, or failed audits. Candidates should recognize the link between audit logging and regulatory controls, and know how to implement retention policies in cloud platforms.
Authentication logs can reveal patterns and anomalies that indicate security threats. A high number of failed logins, access attempts from unusual time zones, or logins from multiple geographic locations in short succession may signal a compromised account. Repeated use of the same I P address to probe multiple accounts suggests automated scanning. Alert rules must be able to identify and respond to these signs of attack while avoiding excessive false positives.
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Authentication logs become even more useful when combined with filtering and alerting. Cloud platforms can be configured to trigger alerts based on suspicious login activity. These alerts may fire when too many failed login attempts are detected in a short period, when logins originate from blocked I P addresses, or when privileged accounts are accessed outside normal hours. Filters allow security teams to separate critical events from routine noise. To be effective, alert thresholds must be tuned to the environment to avoid excessive false positives or overlooked threats.
Retention policies define how long logs are stored and who can access them. These policies vary depending on regulatory frameworks, internal governance, and storage capacity. Logs related to authentication and audit trails are sensitive and must be protected accordingly. Access should be granted only to roles responsible for security, auditing, or compliance. Encryption at rest and in transit must be enforced to preserve confidentiality. Proper retention ensures logs are available for investigations, but not kept longer than necessary, which reduces exposure.
In hybrid or multi-cloud environments, logs must be normalized to support cross-platform correlation. Different providers may use different formats, field names, and metadata conventions. Unified logging platforms aggregate and standardize this data, allowing teams to trace events from identity systems to applications and infrastructure components. Without normalized logs, security teams cannot effectively detect multi-stage attacks or diagnose complex outages. Correlation is essential for understanding distributed environments.
Multi-factor authentication adds another layer of security and complexity to authentication logs. Logs must reflect whether M F A was enabled, attempted, and passed or failed. These entries help security teams verify that protections are working as intended. If M F A is bypassed due to misconfiguration, or fails silently, logs should highlight this. Cloud Plus candidates should expect scenarios where M F A logging plays a role in detecting or investigating unauthorized access.
Privileged accounts require heightened monitoring and stricter logging policies. These accounts typically include administrative users, service principals, or any identity with broad control over systems or data. Actions performed by these accounts—such as changing permissions, deleting data, or disabling security features—must be logged and reviewed. Alerting for privileged activity should be tuned differently from standard user actions to reflect the potential impact of a breach.
Cloud platforms provide both native tools and integration points for audit and authentication logging. Examples include Amazon CloudTrail, Microsoft Azure Activity Logs, and Google Cloud Audit Logs. These tools collect events from core services and feed them into dashboards, alert systems, or Security Information and Event Management solutions. Centralized log management platforms—like Splunk, Sentinel, or Elastic—provide aggregation, indexing, and correlation across multiple data sources. Familiarity with these tools is required for real-world cloud administration and for exam readiness.
Maintaining effective audit trails requires more than just collecting logs. Coverage must be tested regularly to confirm all services are generating expected entries. Gaps in logging may result from configuration errors, new services not onboarded, or misaligned retention rules. Documentation should describe which systems are logged, how access is granted, and where logs are stored. Rotating credentials and keys associated with log ingestion or export helps preserve log integrity and prevent tampering.
After a security incident, audit logs are vital to post-incident analysis. These logs help reconstruct the timeline of the event, identify which systems were accessed, and determine whether data was exfiltrated or modified. Authentication logs show how the attacker gained access, while audit logs show what actions they performed. Effective incident response depends on having complete, accurate, and timely logs. Postmortem reports should reference these logs and inform future detection strategies.
The Cloud Plus exam will expect candidates to identify when logging policies are incomplete, when suspicious activity is present, or when logs have been misinterpreted. Questions may present scenarios involving missing authentication records, unexplained configuration changes, or misaligned permissions. Mastery of both audit and authentication logging equips candidates to respond accurately and confidently. Knowing what to log, where to find it, and how to interpret it is foundational to secure and resilient cloud operations.