What evidence grade logs really are

Evidence grade logs are not a fancy product. They are simply logs that hold up when someone serious asks to see them. That might be a senior manager, a regulator, a funder, or a solicitor. The point is that you can show them without embarrassment.

In practice, evidence grade logs are:

• Clear enough for a non technical person to read the basics.
• Detailed enough to answer who, what, when, and where.
• Consistent enough that patterns can be trusted.
• Stored in a way that means they are still there when needed.

Put another way, they are logs you would be comfortable attaching to a complaint response or an internal investigation pack.

Why logging quality changes outcomes

In any dispute there are usually two stories. One is what people remember, or claim to remember. The other is what your systems recorded in real time.

If your logging is thin, missing, or scattered across services, you end up relying on memory, partial screenshots, and email chains. If your logging is deliberate and well organised, you can:

• Show whether a form was actually submitted, and from which IP address.
• Demonstrate when a site was accessible, and when it was genuinely down.
• Confirm whether a login came from a usual location or something unusual.
• Evidence patterns of probing, scraping, or harassment that took place over time.

The facts do not decide every case on their own, but they heavily influence how seriously people take your side of the story.

Where the logs actually come from

You do not need an enterprise SIEM platform to build useful evidence grade logs. A small organisation can get a long way using the tools it already has, with better structure.

• Cloudflare Requests, countries, paths, and firewall events give a clear picture of who is reaching your site and what was blocked or challenged.
• Web hosting Access logs, error logs, and uptime monitors show how the site behaved over time and whether issues were local or widespread.
• Forms and contact tools Form providers and inboxes can confirm if and when a submission arrived, which fields were filled, and which address it was sent to.
• Email services Sending logs, bounces, and SPF or DMARC reports show whether messages were delivered, rejected, or marked as suspicious.
• Simple analytics Privacy aware analytics tools show which pages were actually read, and from which general locations, without turning visitors into a commodity.

The challenge is not collecting every possible log. The challenge is choosing sources that help you answer real questions and keeping them long enough to matter.

What makes a log “evidence grade”

Not every log is worth keeping. Some are noisy, hard to interpret, or impossible to join up with real world events. Evidence grade logs have a few extra qualities.

• Integrity Logs have not been casually edited or overwritten. If corrections are needed, they are clearly noted, not quietly altered.
• Context A log entry includes enough information to understand the situation, such as timestamps, origin, URL, and brief reason for a block or error.
• Retention Logs are stored for long enough to cover the kinds of complaints or investigations you actually face, without hoarding everything forever.
• Access control Only people who need access can see detailed logs, which helps with GDPR and keeps tampering risk low.
• Linkage Logs can be connected to real cases through ticket numbers, internal references, or complaint IDs, instead of sitting in a pile with no labels.

These are the traits that make a log worth using as part of an evidence pack rather than just a technical curiosity.

Using Cloudflare as a core part of your evidence trail

Cloudflare is often the first system to see trouble. Bots, probes, and scraping attempts hit the edge before they get anywhere near your origin. That makes it a strong anchor for evidence grade logging if you use it deliberately.

• Firewall events show exactly which rules triggered on which requests.
• Rate limiting and bot controls show which paths were abused and how they were throttled.
• Audit logs show who changed what in Cloudflare itself and when.
• Zone analytics give a quick picture of genuine visitors versus junk traffic.

When you pair this with good hosting logs and simple analytics, you can usually reconstruct what happened in more detail than people expect.

If you are new to Cloudflare, the knowledge hub article on Cloudflare basics for small organisations is a good starting point.

A realistic logging pattern for small organisations

You do not need logging perfection. You need a pattern that you can actually maintain. For many of the organisations I support, a practical setup looks like this.

• Cloudflare running in front of the site, with key firewall events and rule changes retained.
• Hosting access and error logs kept for a sensible period and backed up off the server.
• Form submissions sent to a dedicated inbox or ticket system instead of disappearing into personal email accounts.
• Lightweight analytics configured with clear retention so they are useful without becoming a liability.
• A short internal note that explains where logs live, who can access them, and how long they are kept.

The aim is that when someone asks a hard question you can fetch specific logs within minutes, not start a scavenger hunt across old laptops and ex staff accounts.

How this affects complaints and investigations

Evidence grade logs do not guarantee a favourable outcome. They do change the tone of the conversation. Instead of vague statements like “the site was fine from our side” you can say things like:

• “On the dates you mentioned, our Cloudflare logs show your IP accessed these pages successfully at these times.”
• “At the time of the alleged incident, the contact form was submitted three times from these addresses and responded to as follows.”
• “Between these dates we blocked repeated attempts to access restricted paths from a small number of IPs. Here is the pattern.”

Regulators and decision makers may still make a judgement call, but they are now doing so in the presence of specific, dated records rather than competing memories.

On The Reasonable Adjustment you can see how detailed logging and documentation support public interest write ups in live disputes.

Respecting privacy and GDPR while logging properly

Good logs can sit comfortably with data protection law if you design them with intent. Key points:

• Only collect what you need to secure systems and answer realistic questions, not everything you possibly can.
• Set retention periods that reflect how long disputes realistically take to surface.
• Restrict detailed log access to staff with a clear reason to see them.
• Document how logs are used in your privacy notice in honest, readable terms.

If you are unsure how to describe this publicly, a short review of your logging and privacy pages together can help.

How Ki-Ki helps in practice

I do not install enterprise platforms or leave you with dashboards nobody reads. Instead, I focus on:

• Mapping your current logging across Cloudflare, hosting, email, and forms.
• Identifying gaps that would hurt you in a dispute or investigation.
• Designing a simple evidence grade logging pattern you can actually maintain.
• Writing things down so that trustees, directors, and future staff understand what exists.

Often this sits alongside a wider foundations review of domains, email, and website reliability.

Request a short foundations and logging review Open digital support and consulting