Exploring logs

The most ubiquitous connectivity options of the corporate network to the Internet is to use a proxy server. Moreover, all protocols except HTTP and HTTPS are blocked by a firewall. Therefore, we consider this particular scheme. A proxy server is a server that is an intermediary between the client and server. Proxies can be used for almost any network protocol, but they are most often used for the web traffic for HTTP and HTTPS.

In this case, a forensics analyst usually has a data proxy server. Proxy logs are invaluable in analyzing what URL is accessing the corporate network machines. Analysis of the logs of the proxy server allows you to quickly identify which workstations are exposed to a malicious resource. This is done much faster than in the analysis of each client machine.

Typically, proxy logs include not only the time and IP address of the client and the URL, but they also include the status of the HTTP response and the username:

• Unix timestamp (sec.ms)
• Response time...