AU-8 - Time Stamps

Control requirements

The information system:

AU-8 (a): Uses internal system clocks to generate time stamps for audit records; and
AU-8 (b): Records time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and meets [IBM Assignment: one second granularity of time measurement].

IBM Cloud for Financial Services profile

The rules related to this control that follow are part of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services v1.2.0 profile in IBM Cloud® Security and Compliance Center.

Rules for AU-8 in IBM Cloud for Financial Services v1.2.0 profile
Requirement ID	Rules
AU-8 (a)	Check that Activity Tracker Event Routing is configured to collect global events generated by IBM Cloud services
AU-8 (b)	Check that Activity Tracker Event Routing is configured to collect global events generated by IBM Cloud services

NIST supplemental guidance

Time stamps generated by the information system include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a modern continuation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or local time with an offset from UTC. Granularity of time measurements refers to the degree of synchronization between information system clocks and reference clocks, for example, clocks synchronizing within hundreds of milliseconds or within tens of milliseconds. Organizations may define different time granularities for different system components. Time service can also be critical to other security capabilities such as access control and identification and authentication, depending on the nature of the mechanisms used to support those capabilities.