Auditing of Windows Server 2008 is not only required to meet the compliances but also to maintain the security and integrity of the IT infrastructure in an organization. Even though Microsoft had added many features in Windows Server 2008 R2 as compared to its predecessors, still the native auditing had to be enabled manually. One of the major changes is that you can now get a detailed report of changes containing who, what, when, new values, and old values. If you’re looking for how to enable native File Access Auditing in Windows 2008 or 2008 R2, then you’re at the right place. Here, we’ll discuss the steps to perform the same.
How to enable File Access Auditing
1. Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Administrative Tools, and click “Group Policy Management” to display the following window.
Figure: Group Policy Management
2. Browse the nodes – Forest > Domains > (your domain). Right click on the Organizational Unit on which you want to turn on the File Access Auditing. If no OU is created, then right click on your domain node and select “New Organizational Unit” to create an organizational unit.
In our case, “File Servers” is the desired OU. Right click on “File Servers” and select the first option “Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here”.
Figure: Right Click on OU to create a GPO
3. Doing this will display the following dialog box to create a GPO.
Figure: Dialog box to create new GPO
4. Enter the name of the GPO in the textbox such as “File Access Auditing” and click “OK” button. This will create a new GPO that will be displayed under the “File Servers” node.
Figure: File Access Auditing
5. Click “File Access Auditing” and this will display a warning message that the modifications to this policy will be global a...
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... what type of access to a file and give detailed information like address of users’ machine and shared path of the file.
Third Party Tool
If you find it quite difficult to first enable the native File Access Auditing and then to use Event Viewer for conducting audit using difficult-to-understand and large event details, then it’s suggested to go with a trusted file tool like LepideAuditor for File Server. This easy-to-use software delivers the minutest details about each file related events in a better readable format. In addition, it also automatically sends the audit reports at the scheduled intervals and real-time alerts to the desired recipients via email.
Conclusion
You can follow the above-mentioned steps to enable the native File Access Auditing in Windows Server 2008. This will help you to have a clear picture what all is going on in your IT infrastructure.
Digital forensics can be broken down into three phases; acquisition, analysis, and presentation. The acquisition phase is where the data is saved in a way that it can be analyzed latter. Because it is not known at the time what data is or is not valuable to the case, all data is saved. In the analysis phase, the data is examined and placed into three major categories; inculpatory, exculpatory, or signs of evidence tampering (Carrier, 2002). Tools are used in this phase that are able to analyze for the list directory contents, deleted files, and recover the deleted files. In the presentation phase, the data has been documented in a way that it can undergo a peer review. When deleted files are recovered, the analyst must show how they were found because they were ...
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