The DBMS must provide an immediate real-time alert to appropriate support staff of all audit log failures.

It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a system is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability, and system operation may be adversely affected.

The appropriate support staff include, at a minimum, the ISSO and the DBA/SA.

A failure of database auditing will result in either the database continuing to function without auditing or in a complete halt to database operations. When audit processing fails, appropriate personnel must be alerted immediately to avoid further downtime or unaudited transactions.

Alerts provide organizations with urgent messages. Real-time alerts provide these messages immediately (i.e., the time from event detection to alert occurs in seconds or less).

Review DBMS settings, OS, or third-party logging software settings to determine whether a real-time alert will be sent to the appropriate personnel when auditing fails for any reason.

If real-time alerts are not sent upon auditing failure, this is a finding.

Configure the system to provide immediate real-time alerts to appropriate support staff when an audit log failure occurs.