This work package defines the 2026 Unified Observability & Detection Standard. As enterprises manage hybrid footprints, the goal is to eliminate the "Visibility Gap" between static on-premise logs and ephemeral multi-cloud telemetry.
Objective: To establish a centralized, AI-augmented Security Operations Center (SOC) capability that provides real-time detection, correlation, and automated response across AWS, Azure, GCP, and On-Premise infrastructure.
The foundation of Zero Trust monitoring is the ability to ingest and normalize high-fidelity data from disparate sources.
Universal Ingestion Layer: Deploy a scalable log aggregator (e.g., Cribl, Vector, or Splunk Universal Forwarders) to collect:
On-Prem: Syslog, Windows Event Logs, NetFlow, and EDR telemetry.
Multi-Cloud: AWS CloudTrail/GuardDuty, Azure Activity/Diagnostic logs, and GCP Cloud Logging.
Schema Normalization (OCSF): Standardize all logs into the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF) to ensure that an "authentication failure" in AWS looks the same as one on an on-premise Linux server.
Storage Tiering: Implement a "Hot/Warm/Cold" strategy—keeping 30 days of high-speed searchable data in the SIEM and archiving 365+ days in low-cost cloud storage (S3/Blob/GCS) for compliance.
Deliverable: Unified Data Ingestion & Retention Architecture.
Moving beyond static "If-This-Then-That" rules to behavioral analytics.
Behavioral Baselines (UEBA): Use Machine Learning to profile normal user and agent behavior. Alert on "Impossible Travel," unusual API call bursts, or late-night access to sensitive databases.
Hybrid Attack Correlation: Link signals from different clouds. (e.g., Detect a credential harvest on an on-prem workstation followed by a login to an Azure production environment).
AI SOC Copilot: Deploy LLM-based investigation assistants to summarize complex alerts, suggesting remediation steps for junior analysts to reduce "Dwell Time."
Deliverable: Threat Detection Catalog & MITRE ATT&CK Mapping.
Identity is the new perimeter; this phase monitors the "Non-Human Identities" (NHI) and human users.
Identity Exposure Monitoring: Real-time alerts on "Shadow Admins," privilege escalation, or dormant accounts that suddenly become active across cloud consoles.
Entitlement Drift Detection: Monitor for "Configuration Drift" where cloud permissions (IAM) are modified outside of authorized Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) pipelines.
Agentic Logic Monitoring: Specifically monitor the "Chain of Thought" (CoT) logs for AI agents to detect Goal Hijacking or unauthorized tool execution.
Deliverable: Identity-First Monitoring Dashboard & Alert Logic.
To survive machine-speed attacks, response must be automated.
Active Containment Playbooks: Develop automated scripts to:
Isolate: Quarantine compromised VMs or containers in any cloud.
Revoke: Automatically disable IAM roles or rotate keys if a leak is detected on GitHub.
Block: Update EDR/Firewall rules globally to block a known-malicious IP.
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Gates: Ensure critical actions (like deleting a prod environment) require a "one-click" manual approval from a senior responder via a mobile app or Slack/Teams.
Deliverable: Incident Response Automation (SOAR) Playbook.
SIEM/XDR: Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk Enterprise Security, or Google Chronicle.
Cloud Posture: Wiz, Prisma Cloud, or SentinelOne PingSafe.
Identity Monitoring: Okta Identity Threat Protection or Entra ID Protection.
Orchestration: Tines, Torq, or Cortex XSOAR.
For more information on the Work Packages you can contact us in any of the following ways quoting the Work Package ID
Contact us on info@techstrategygroup.org
Complete our Enquiry form