What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on OPS-12 Logging and Monitoring - Access, Storage and Deletion?

Permission listing for the log platform showing groups and their read or admin rights; Retention and lifecycle rules configured inside the log store; Deletion job output confirming expired records were removed; Access review record covering log platform accounts.

What is the most common gap auditors find on OPS-12?

Anyone in operations able to read raw logs regardless of their role

BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue) · C5: Operations

`OPS-12` Logging and Monitoring - Access, Storage and Deletion

Implement the logging and metadata rules through technically supported procedures so that only authorised users and systems can reach the records, records are retained for exactly the specified period, and they are deleted once retention is no longer needed.

Source: BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue), OPS-12. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue) in the compliance library.

The edition of the catalogue is not stamped here; check the edition your attestation is issued against.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

SIEM / log platform

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Retention and lifecycle rules configured inside the log store · SIEM / log platform
Deletion job output confirming expired records were removed · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Access review record covering log platform accounts · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Permission listing for the log platform showing groups and their read or admin rights · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your SIEM / log platform. Retention and alert rules exported from the SIEM; review evidence is the closed-alert record with reviewer and time.

Common gaps auditors find

Anyone in operations able to read raw logs regardless of their role
Retention written into policy but never configured in the tool, so data lives indefinitely
Archived log buckets exempted from the lifecycle rules
Service accounts holding standing log export rights that are never reviewed

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

OPS-11 Logging and Monitoring - Metadata Management Concept · OPS-13 Logging and Monitoring - Identification of Events