What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on OPS-16 Logging and Monitoring - Configuration?

Role membership list for administrators of the monitoring platform; Approved change tickets covering the most recent alterations to log collection rules; Audit trail of edits to detection rules and log source settings; Segregation evidence separating log administrators from system administrators.

What is the most common gap auditors find on OPS-16?

Detection rules edited directly in the console with no change record raised

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

`OPS-16` Logging and Monitoring - Configuration

Restrict access to the system components used for logging and monitoring to authorised users, and make every change to their configuration through the applicable change management policies.

Source: BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue), OPS-16. 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

Approved change tickets covering the most recent alterations to log collection rules · SIEM / log platform
Audit trail of edits to detection rules and log source settings · SIEM / log platform
Segregation evidence separating log administrators from system administrators · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Role membership list for administrators of the monitoring platform · 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

Detection rules edited directly in the console with no change record raised
System owners able to alter or remove logging configuration on their own hosts
Leavers keeping administrative rights on the monitoring platform
No approval gate for changes that reduce log coverage

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-15 Logging and Monitoring - Accountability · OPS-17 Logging and Monitoring - Availability of the Monitoring Software