Which type of logs should incident handlers analyze to understand established connections and user activity?

Analyzing network logs is essential for incident handlers to understand established connections and user activity within an organization's environment. Network logs provide valuable information about all incoming and outgoing traffic, including timestamps, source and destination IP addresses, ports, protocols, and the specific actions being taken across the network. This comprehensive view allows incident handlers to track real-time communications between devices, identify unusual patterns or anomalies that could indicate incidents such as unauthorized access or data exfiltration, and determine the context around interactions between users and systems.

While other types of logs, like server and database logs, can provide insights into specific applications or data transactions, they do not give as holistic a view of network behavior. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems aggregate and analyze data from various log sources, including network logs. However, without focusing on the raw network logs specifically, the ability to trace real-time connectivity and network-based user activities can be limited.

Thus, prioritizing network log analysis is critical for incident handlers to effectively monitor, identify, and respond to potential security incidents and ensure a comprehensive understanding of network interactions.