Monitoring security events is a crucial aspect of maintaining a secure and stable Windows environment. It allows administrators to detect potential security breaches, unauthorized access, and other security-related incidents in real-time. This article will guide you through the process of setting up and managing security event monitoring on a Windows system. We'll cover the use of built-in tools such as Event Viewer, and PowerShell commands, and discuss how to configure audit policies to ensure comprehensive monitoring.

Examples:

1. Using Event Viewer to Monitor Security Events:

   Event Viewer is a built-in Windows tool that allows you to view and manage event logs. Security events are logged under the "Security" log.

   • Open Event Viewer:

     1. Press Win + R, type eventvwr.msc, and press Enter.
     2. In the Event Viewer, navigate to Windows Logs -> Security.

   • Filter Security Events:

     1. Right-click on the Security log and select Filter Current Log.
     2. In the filter window, you can specify the event IDs, such as 4624 (successful logon) or 4625 (failed logon), to narrow down the events you are interested in.

2. Configuring Audit Policies:

   Audit policies determine which events are recorded in the security log. To configure audit policies:

   • Open the Local Group Policy Editor:

     1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
     2. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Audit Policy.

   • Enable Auditing:

     1. Double-click on a policy, such as Audit logon events.
     2. Select Success and/or Failure depending on what you want to monitor, and click OK.

3. Using PowerShell to Monitor Security Events:

   PowerShell provides a powerful way to query and filter event logs. Below are some useful commands:

   • Get the latest 10 security events:

     Get-EventLog -LogName Security -Newest 10

   • Filter events by ID (e.g., 4624 for successful logon):

     Get-EventLog -LogName Security | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 4624}

   • Export security events to a CSV file:

     Get-EventLog -LogName Security | Export-Csv -Path "C:\SecurityEvents.csv" -NoTypeInformation

4. Setting Up Scheduled Tasks to Automate Monitoring:

   You can create scheduled tasks to automate the monitoring process. For example, you can run a PowerShell script at regular intervals to check for specific security events and send an alert.

   • Create a PowerShell script (e.g., MonitorSecurityEvents.ps1):

     $events = Get-EventLog -LogName Security | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 4625}
     if ($events.Count -gt 0) {
      # Send an alert (e.g., email or log to a file)
      "Security alert: Failed logon attempts detected" | Out-File "C:\SecurityAlert.txt"
     }

   • Schedule the task:

     1. Open Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc).
     2. Create a new task and set the trigger to run at your desired interval.
     3. In the "Actions" tab, set the action to run PowerShell with the script:

        powershell.exe -File "C:\Path\To\MonitorSecurityEvents.ps1"