Example of System Monitoring Policy

1 Policy  Statement

To ensure that organizational IT systems are not open to abuse, XXX reserves the right to monitor individual staff usage but only where authorized by senior HR staff and where, in the circumstances, it is fair and appropriate to do so. A range of monitoring activities needs to be established to ensure that the IT systems are operating efficiently and effectively. This includes the monitoring of information entering, leaving, or stored on organizational IT systems. Such monitoring is not, in general, person-specific, but the employee’s personal data may be accessed as part of this policy.

2 Purpose

This policy offers guidance regarding monitoring system use and related user activities. It is intended to guide and inform personnel and help them understand the importance of maintaining logs of all user activities on the system.

3 Scope

3.1 IT Assets

This policy applies to all organizational information systems and  Employees, Contractors, and Third Party Employees, who have access to IT assets and may be bound by contractual agreements.

3.2 Documentation

The System Monitoring Policy documentation shall consist of System Monitoring Policy, related procedures & guidelines.

3.3 Document Control

The System Monitoring Policy document and all other referenced documents shall be controlled. The version control shall be used to preserve the latest release and the previous version of any document. However, the previous version of the documents shall be retained only for a period of two years for legal and knowledge preservation purposes.

3.4 Records

Records being generated as part of the System Monitoring Policy shall be retained for a period of two years. Records shall be in hard copy or electronic media. The records shall be owned by the respective system administrators and shall be audited once a year.

3.5 Distribution and Maintenance

The System Monitoring Policy document shall be made available to all the employees covered in the scope. All the changes and new releases of this document shall be made available to the persons concerned. The maintenance responsibility of the System Monitoring Policy document will be with the CISO and system administrators.

4 Privacy

The System Monitoring Policy document shall be considered as “confidential” and shall be made available to the concerned persons with proper access control. Subsequent changes and versions of this document shall be controlled.

5 Responsibility

The CISO / designated personnel is responsible for proper implementation of the System Monitoring Policy.

6 Policy

Systems shall be monitored to ensure all information security events are recorded. The organization shall comply with all relevant legal requirements applicable to the monitoring and logging activities. System monitoring shall be used as a means to check the effectiveness of controls adopted and also to verify the conformance to the organizational access control and acceptable use policies.
System monitoring shall consider the following aspects:
a. compliance with regulatory and statutory obligations;
b. effective maintenance of IT systems;
c. prevention or detection of unauthorized use of, or other threats to the organizational IT systems, or criminal activities;
d. compliance with organizational policies and procedures; and
e. review of usage and staff training.

7 Enforcement

Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subjected to disciplinary action in line with the HR Policy.

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