Lets talk about logs baby…

Let’s talk about you-AD.
Let’s talk about all the good logs, and the bad logs that could be…

All jokes aside, Logging is boring but really important.
I’ve seen too many environments where logging is treated like an afterthought—until the moment it becomes the most important thing. If you’ve ever tried to respond to an incident with default logs, you know exactly what I mean. So let’s fix that.

Whether you’ve got a full SOC-SIEM setup or you’re flying solo, this post is your guide to smart, effective AD logging.

📑 Table of Contents

The Problem with Default Logging
Why Logging Really Matters
If You Have a SIEM
If You Don’t
Making the Case to Management
What to Log: Microsoft’s Baseline
How I Recommend You Apply It
What You Get From It
Final Thoughts

❌ The Problem with Default Logging

If your domain audit policy is still running on defaults, you’re basically working with the lights off. Most environments with default settings are missing logs on:

Privilege escalation
Security group changes
GPO edits
Sensitive object access

If something goes wrong, you’ll probably have no idea what happened—or even that it happened at all. That’s not just bad security—it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

🧠 Why Logging Really Matters

Whether you’re running a blue team, managing infrastructure, or just trying to keep your AD environment healthy, logs are how you see. They’re how you detect, investigate, and respond.

They’re not just “nice to have”—they’re the visibility layer your whole security posture sits on.

✅ If You Have a SIEM

Great! You’re ahead of the game. But even the best SOC can’t detect what isn’t being logged.

Here’s what your audit policy should be feeding into the SIEM:

Logons, account changes, and policy tweaks
Privilege use and abuse
Directory access patterns

This is where detection starts. This is what lets your analysts build meaningful detections—and respond before it’s too late.

🛠️ If You Don’t

No SIEM? No SOC? That’s okay—for now.

You still need solid logging. Why?

Because when something breaks bad, logs are your only hope for:

Investigating what happened
Containing the damage
Restoring systems with confidence

Think of this like a flight data recorder for AD. You hope you never need it—but when you do, it’s everything.
In a forensics scenario, the logs are your black box.

🏦 Making the Case to Management

Need to convince leadership to invest in SIEM or SOC? I’ve made a simple PDF with the key business points:

Risk reduction and incident readiness
Compliance and audit support
Visibility into high-impact changes
ROI from reduced incident response time

This isn’t just IT hygiene—it’s business resilience.

📋 What to Log: Microsoft’s Baseline

No need to reinvent the wheel—Microsoft has already done the work for you.

👉 Microsoft’s Baseline Audit Policy Recommendations

This covers:

Account logon and management
Directory service access
Policy change and object access
Privilege use

It’s a smart, actionable starting point. You want visibility? Start here.

🧰 How I Recommend You Apply It

Here’s the cleanest approach:

Create a dedicated GPO for audit settings
Use the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit or LGPO.exe
Import an audit.csv file with the baseline settings
Link the GPO at the root of your domain

✅ Keeps audit config isolated
✅ Avoids cluttering other GPOs
✅ Easy to manage and troubleshoot

🎯 What You Get From It

With this in place:

Your SIEM (if you have one) gets rich, actionable telemetry
You gain forensic capability for investigations
You establish a defensible security posture

This isn’t just logging. It’s building a foundation.

💬 Final Thoughts

I know logging isn’t flashy—but it’s the thing that lets you see.
And without it? You’re just guessing.

Start with the baseline. It’s free, it’s tested, and it will save your bacon when you need it most.

Let me know if you’d like me to convert this into Markdown or help build out the PDF you mentioned. If you want an infographic (like a “Before/After: Audit Policy” or “Top Logged Events by Value”), I can whip one up too.