Audit trail

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An audit trail (also called audit log) is a security-relevant chronological record, set of records, and/or destination and source of records that provide documentary evidence of the sequence of activities that have affected at any time a specific operation, procedure, event, or device.

scientific research and health care data transactions,[4] or communications
by individual people, systems, accounts, or other entities.

The process that creates an audit trail is typically required to always run in a

privileged mode, so it can access and supervise all actions from all users; a normal user should not be allowed to stop/change it. Furthermore, for the same reason, the trail file or database table with a trail should not be accessible to normal users. Another way of handling this issue is through the use of a role-based security model in the software.[5] The software can operate with the closed-looped controls, or as a 'closed system
', as required by many companies when using audit trail functionality.

Industry uses

In

telecommunication, the term means a record of both completed and attempted accesses and service, or data forming a logical path linking a sequence
of events, used to trace the transactions that have affected the contents of a record.

In

forensic investigation, supporting the associations inside examinations, setting up baselines
, and distinguishing operational patterns and long run issues.

In

protocol
.

In accounting, it refers to documentation of detailed transactions supporting summary ledger entries. This documentation may be on paper or on electronic records.

In finance, it refers to an order (any firm indication of a willingness to buy or sell a security) tracking system, or consolidated audit trail, with respect to the trading of securities, that would capture order event information for orders in securities from the time of the receipt of an order, and further documenting the life of the order through the process of routing, modification, cancellation, and execution (in whole or in part) of the order.[8][9]

In

version history
of a piece of artwork, design, photograph, video, or web design proof in a project.

In clinical research, server based systems such as clinical trial management systems (CTMS) require audit trails. Anything regulatory or QA/QC related also requires audit trails.

In

Good Manufacturing Practice regulatory requirement software generate audit trails, but not all software have audit trail functionality built-in. The first 'generic' audit trail generating software came out late 2021.[citation needed] The software is called Audit Trail Control, capable of fulfilling regulatory requirements for any software used in pharmaceutical manufacturing.[citation needed
]

In voting, a voter-verified paper audit trail is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system.

References

  1. ^ "National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary" (PDF). Committee on National Security Systems. 7 August 1996. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  2. ^ "ATIS Telecom Glossary 2012 - audit trail". Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Committee PRQC. 2012. Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  3. Securities and Exchange Commission
    . 26 May 2010. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  4. U.S. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original
    on 8 June 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  5. ISBN 978-1-4200-4659-5
    .
  6. ^ Information audit
  7. ^ Jaime Campbell; Alex Peterson, Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Edition 12.0 Cookbook for Experts, 2012
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ "17 CFR § 242.613 - Consolidated audit trail". LII / Legal Information Institute.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Audit_trail&oldid=1207962113"