What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 8.3 Ensure Adequate Audit Log Storage?

Storage capacity reports for log servers or SIEM; Alerts configured for low log storage; Retention calculations against expected volume.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 8.3?

Logs overwritten locally before collection

CIS Controls v8.1 · CIS Control 8: Audit Log Management

`8.3` Ensure Adequate Audit Log Storage

Make sure every log destination has enough storage to meet the log management process. Implementation Groups: IG1, IG2 and IG3 (part of the IG1 essential cyber hygiene baseline, so every enterprise applies it). Asset type: Data. Security function: Protect.

Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 8.3. 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 CIS Controls v8.1 in the compliance library.

Scope: Implementation Groups: IG1, IG2, IG3. Security function: Protect; asset type: Data.

Each safeguard shows its Implementation Groups. IG1 is the essential baseline for every enterprise, IG2 adds to it, IG3 is all 153. Version 8.1 adds the Govern security function and asks for more processes to be documented; numbering is unchanged from v8.

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

Storage capacity reports for log servers or SIEM · SIEM / log platform
Alerts configured for low log storage · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Retention calculations against expected volume · 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

Logs overwritten locally before collection
SIEM ingestion capped and dropping events
No monitoring of storage thresholds

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

8.2 Collect Audit Logs · 8.4 Standardize Time Synchronization