Events in Security Cloud Control
About Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS) in Security Cloud Control
Terminology Note: In this documentation, when Cisco Security Analytics and Logging is used with the Secure Cloud Analytics portal (a software as a service product) you will see this integration referred to as Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS) or SAL (SaaS).
Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SAL) allows you to capture connection, intrusion, file, malware, security intelligence, syslog, and Netflow Secure Event Logging (NSEL) events from all of your ASA and Secure Firewall Threat Defense devices and view them in one place in Security Cloud Control. The events are stored in the Cisco cloud and viewable from the Event Logging page in Security Cloud Control, where you can filter and review them to gain a clear understanding of what security rules are triggering in your network.
With additional licensing, after you capture these events, you can cross-launch from Security Cloud Control to a Secure Cloud Analytics portal provisioned for you. Secure Cloud Analytics is a software as a service (SaaS) solution that tracks the state of your network by performing a behavioral analysis on events and network flow data. By gathering information about your network traffic from sources including firewall events and network flow data, it creates observations about the traffic and automatically identifies roles for network entities based on their traffic patterns. Using this information combined with other sources of threat intelligence, such as Talos, Secure Cloud Analytics generates alerts, which constitute a warning that there is behavior that may be malicious in nature. Along with the alerts, Secure Cloud Analytics provides network and host visibility, and contextual information it has gathered to provide you with a better basis to research the alert and locate sources of malicious behavior.
Event Types in Security Cloud Control
When filtering the security events logged in Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS), you can choose from a list of ASA, FTD, and event types that Security Cloud Control supports. From the Security Cloud Control menu, navigate and click the filter icon to choose events. These event types represent groups of syslog IDs. The table that follows shows which syslog IDs are included in which event type. To learn more about a specific syslog ID, you can search for it in the Cisco ASA Series Syslog Messages or the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Syslog Messages guides.
Some syslog events have the additional attribute "EventName." You can filter the events table to find events using the EventName attribute by filtering by attribute:value pairs. See Event Name Attributes for Syslog Events.
Some syslog events will have the additional attributes "EventGroup" and "EventGroupDefinition". You will be able to filter the events table to find events using these additional attributes by filtering by attribute:value pairs. See EventGroup and EventGroupDefinition Attributes for Some Syslog Messages.
The NetFlow events are different from syslog events. The NetFlow filter searches for all NetFlow event IDs that resulted in an NSEL record. Those NetFlow event IDs are defined in the Cisco ASA NetFlow Implementation Guide.
The following table describes the event types that Security Cloud Control supports and lists the syslog or NetFlow event numbers that correspond to the event types:
Filter Name |
Description |
Corresponding Syslog Event or Netflow Event |
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AAA |
These are events that the system generates when failed or invalid attempts happen to authenticate, authorize, or use up resources in the network, when AAA is configured. |
109001-109035 113001-113027 |
BotNet |
These events get logged when a user attempts to access a malicious network, which might contain a malware-infected host, possibly a BotNet, or when the system detects traffic to or from a domain or an IP address in the dynamic filter block list. |
338001-338310 |
Failover |
These events get logged when the system detects errors in stateful and stateless failover configurations or errors in the secondary firewall unit when a failover occurs. |
101001-101005, 102001, 103001-103007, 104001-104004, 105001-105048 210001-210022 311001-311004 709001-709007 |
Firewall Denied |
These events get generated when the firewall system denies traffic of a network packet for various reasons, ranging from a packet drop because of the security policy to a drop because the system received a packet with the same source IP and destination IP, which could potentially mean an attack on the network. Firewall Denied events may be contained in a NetFlow and may be reported with NetFlow event IDs as well as syslog IDs. |
106001, 106007, 106012, 106013, 106015, 106016, 106017, 106020, 106021, 106022, 106023, 106025, 106027 |
Firewall Traffic |
These are events that get logged depending on the various connection attempts in the network, user identities, time stamps, terminated sessions, and so on. Firewall Traffic events may be contained in a NetFlow and may be reported with NetFlow event IDs as well as syslog IDs. |
106001-106100, 108001-108007, 110002-110003 201002-201013, 209003-209005, 215001 302002-302304, 302022-302027, 303002-303005, 313001-313008, 317001-317006, 324000-324301, 337001-337009 400001-400050, 401001-401005, 406001-406003, 407001-407003, 408001-408003, 415001-415020, 416001, 418001-418002, 419001-419003, 424001-424002, 431001-431002, 450001 500001-500005, 508001-508002 607001-607003, 608001-608005, 609001-609002, 616001 703001-703003, 726001 |
IPsec VPN |
These events are logged in an IPsec VPN-configured firewall when mismatches occur in IPsec security associations or when the system detects an error in the IPsec packets it receives. |
402001-402148, 602102-602305, 702304-702307 |
NAT |
These events are logged in a NAT-configured firewall when NAT entries are created or deleted and when all the addresses in a NAT pool are used up and exhausted. |
201002-201013, 202001-202011, 305005-305012 |
SSL VPN |
These events are logged in an SSL VPN-configurated firewall when WebVPN sessions get created or terminated, user access errors, and user activities. |
716001-716060, 722001-722053, 723001-723014, 724001-724004, 725001-725015 |
NetFlow |
These events are logged around the IP network traffic as network packets enter and exit the interfaces, timestamps, user identities, and the amount of data transferred. |
0, 1, 2, 3, 5 |
Connection |
You can generate events for connections as users generate traffic that passes through the system. Enable connection logging on access rules to generate these events. You can also enable logging on Security Intelligence policies and SSL decryption rules to generate connection events. Connection events contain data about the detected sessions. The information available for any individual connection event depends on several factors, but in general includes:
|
430002, 430003 |
Intrusion |
The system examines the packets that traverse your network for malicious activity that could affect the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of a host and its data. When the system identifies a possible intrusion, it generates an intrusion event, which is a record of the date, time, type of exploit, and contextual information about the source of the attack and its target. Intrusion events are generated for any intrusion rule set to block or alert, regardless of the logging configuration of the invoking access control rule. |
430001 |
File |
File events represent files that the system detected, and optionally blocked, in network traffic based on your file policies. You must enable file logging on the access rule that applies the file policy to generate these events. When the system generates a file event, the system also logs the end of the associated connection regardless of the logging configuration of the invoking access control rule. |
430004 |
Malware |
The system can detect malware in network traffic as part of your overall access control configuration. AMP for Firepower can generate a malware event, containing the disposition of the resulting event, and contextual data about how, where, and when the malware was detected. You must enable file logging on the access rule that applies the file policy to generate these events. The disposition of a file can change, for example, from clean to malware or from malware to clean. If AMP for Firepower queries the AMP cloud about a file, and the cloud determines the disposition has changed within a week of the query, the system generates retrospective malware events. |
430005 |
Security Intelligence |
Security Intelligence events are a type of connection event generated by the Security Intelligence policy for each connection that is blocked or monitored by the policy. All Security Intelligence events have a populated Security Intelligence Category field. For each of these events, there is a corresponding "regular" connection event. Because the Security Intelligence policy is evaluated before many other security policies, including access control, when a connection is blocked by Security Intelligence, the resulting event does not contain the information that the system would have gathered from subsequent evaluation, for example, user identity. |
430002, 430003 |
Security Analytics and Logging license and Data Storage Plans
To obtain Security Analytics and Logging entitlement, you can purchase one of the following licenses:
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Security Cloud Control Device License Subscription with Unlimited Logging: This license combines Cisco Defense Orchestrator management license for managing Cisco firewalls device with unlimited volume of event logging. By default, 90 days of storage retention is available with this license. You have the option to extend log retention period to 1, 2, or 3 years by purchasing additional data retention extension licenses.
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Cisco Logging and Troubleshooting License Subscription: This license supports logging 1 GB volume per day with 90 days of storage retention. You can extend log retention to 1, 2, or 3 years by purchasing additional data retention extension licenses.
For more information, see About Security Cloud Control Licenses.
You need to purchase a data storage plan that corresponds to the volume of events the Cisco cloud receives from your onboarded security devices on a daily basis. This volume is referred to as your daily ingest rate. Data plans are available in whole number amounts of GB/day and in 1-, 3-, or 5-year terms. The most effective method to determine your ingest rate is to participate in a free trial of Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS) before making a purchase. This trial will provide an accurate estimate of your event volume.
With Security Cloud Control device license subscription, you receive 90 days of rolling data storage. This policy ensures that the most recent 90 days of events are stored in the Cisco cloud, and data older than 90 days is deleted.
You have the option to upgrade to additional event retention beyond the default 90 days or to increase daily volume (GB/day) through a change order to an existing subscription. Billing for these upgrades will be prorated for the remainder of the subscription term.
See the Subscriptions section of Guidelines for Quoting Secruity Cloud Control Products for more information about the storage and subscription plans.
![]() Note |
If you have a Security Analytics and Logging license and data plan, then obtain a different Security Analytics and Logging license, you are not required change your data plan. Similarly, if your network traffic throughput changes and you obtain a different data plan, this change alone does not require you to obtain a different Security Analytics and Logging license. |
What data gets counted against my allotment?
All events sent to the Secure Event Connector accumulate in the Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS) cloud and count against your data allotment.
Filtering what you see in the events viewer does not decrease the number of events stored in the Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS) cloud, it reduces the number of events you can see in the events viewer.
We're using up our storage allotment quickly, what can we do?
Here are two approaches to address that problem:
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Consider reducing the number of rules that log events. You can log events from SSL policy rules, security intelligence rules, access control rules, intrusion policies, and file and malware policies. Review what you are currently logging to determine if it is necessary to log events from as many rules and policies.
View Security Analytics and Logging License Information
View your Security Analytics and Logging license information such as the entitled monthly storage limit and the event storage retention period. If you do not have a separate Security Analytics and Logging license and data plan, the 90-day rolling data storage details appear in the licensing information.
Procedure
Step 1 |
From the left navigation bar, click . |
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Step 2 |
Click the View Logging Storage Usage button.
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Extend Event Storage Duration and Increase Event Storage Capacity
To extend your rolling event storage or increase the amount of event cloud storage, do the following steps:
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to your account on Cisco Commerce. |
Step 2 |
Select your Security Cloud Control PID. |
Step 3 |
Follow the prompts to upgrade the length or capacity of your storage capacity. The increased cost will be pro-rated based for the term remaining on your existing license. See the Guidelines for Quoting Cisco Defense Orchestrator Products for detailed instructions. |
View Security Analytics and Logging Alerts
View alerts and notifications for the Security Analytics and Logging configurations and event settings for the managed firewall devices.
Procedure
Step 1 |
From the left navigation bar, click . |
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Step 2 |
Click the View Logging Storage Usage button.
The Alerts and Notifications section displays alerts about the settings that impact event logging, enabling you to take action to resolve any issues. Some of these settings include:
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View Security Analytics and Logging Storage Usage and Event Ingest Rate
View the current Security Analytics and Logging storage utilization and analyze event logging trends. You can analyze the storage utilization trends by event type, device type, and individual devices to gain deeper insights into storage utilization patterns. Use the data visualizations for quick and easy analysis, enabling you to assess the current storage capacity and take measures to reduce the logging rate if the storage utilization approaches the limits that are specified in your Security Analytics and Logging license.
Procedure
Step 1 |
From the left navigation bar, click . |
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Step 2 |
Click View Logging Storage Usage.
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Step 3 |
Use the following dashboards to customize and analyze the storage utilization and gain more insights into the event logging trends in your firewall deployment:
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Deprovisioning Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS)
If you allow your Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS) paid license to lapse, you have a grace period of 90 days. If you renew your paid license during this grace period, there is no interruption in your service.
Otherwise, if you allow the 90-day grace period to elapse, the system purges all of your customer data. You can no longer view ASA, FTD, or events from the Event Logging page, nor have dynamic entity modeling behavioral analytics applied to your ASA, FTD, or events and network flow data.