Who should have access to audit trails?

Who should have access to audit trails?

• A. All employees
• B. Only system administrators
• C. Limit viewing to those with a job-related need
• D. Anyone with network access

Answer: (C)

Access to audit trails should be restricted to people who have a legitimate, job-related need to view them. Audit trails can reveal sensitive information about system activity, user actions, and potential security incidents, so exposing them to everyone would risk privacy and integrity and undermine accountability. The right approach is a need-to-know model with proper authentication and logging of who accesses the trails, and for what purpose. Think of roles like security analysts, incident responders, compliance or audit staff, and system owners who may need to investigate events or verify controls. They may need access, but not indiscriminately. Limiting access to all employees or to anyone with network access would violate principle of least privilege and could enable misuse or leakage of sensitive data. Limiting access to only system administrators is too narrow, since day-to-day monitoring and forensics often involve others who manage or review activity logs.

Access to audit trails should be restricted to people who have a legitimate, job-related need to view them. Audit trails can reveal sensitive information about system activity, user actions, and potential security incidents, so exposing them to everyone would risk privacy and integrity and undermine accountability. The right approach is a need-to-know model with proper authentication and logging of who accesses the trails, and for what purpose.

Think of roles like security analysts, incident responders, compliance or audit staff, and system owners who may need to investigate events or verify controls. They may need access, but not indiscriminately. Limiting access to all employees or to anyone with network access would violate principle of least privilege and could enable misuse or leakage of sensitive data. Limiting access to only system administrators is too narrow, since day-to-day monitoring and forensics often involve others who manage or review activity logs.