CerbiShield Governance Cycle

Governance Active
CerbiShieldGovern logs at the source.

Step 1 — The raw log

This log is leaving your
application right now.

Every checkout, every auth call, every background job. Developers log everything — and three of these fields should never reach your observability pipeline.

Raw log — OrdersAPI / production
service
OrdersAPI
environment
production
correlationId
txn-8821-cc
userId
usr_4421
cardNumber
4532-1234-5678-9012Redacted
email
thomas@acme.comRedacted
apiToken
sk_live_abc123xyz789Redacted
amount
149.99
action
checkout
cardNumber= "4532-1234-5678-901…"

PCI-DSS Req 3.4 — card data must never appear in logs

apiToken= "sk_live_abc123xyz7…"

Credential exposure — live token grants full API access

email= "thomas@acme.com…"

GDPR Art. 25 — PII should be minimised at source

82%

of breaches involve data
that appeared in application logs

Step 2 — Policy match

Every field is checked
against your deployed rules.

CerbiStream resolves aliases, checks every field key, and matches it to a governance rule before the log leaves the application process.

Field in log

cardNumber"4532-1234-5678-9012…"

Rule matched

cardNumber → Forbidden

aliases: cc, creditCard

Reason

Card data in logs violates PCI-DSS. No conditions. Always redact.

Field in log

apiToken"sk_live_abc123xyz789…"

Rule matched

token → Forbidden

aliases: apiKey, secret, accessToken

Reason

Live credentials in telemetry pipelines create lateral-movement risk.

Field in log

email"thomas@acme.com…"

Rule matched

email → Warn

aliases: userEmail

Reason

PII in logs. Warn-level: flags but does not block. Allows developer awareness.

Step 3 — Transformation

The log is governed
before it leaves the app.

Sensitive values are redacted in-process. The governed log — not the raw log — reaches Datadog, Splunk, or your SIEM.

Without Cerbi

Score 38 / CRITICAL
Raw log — leaves application
service
OrdersAPI
environment
production
correlationId
txn-8821-cc
userId
usr_4421
cardNumber
4532-1234-5678-9012Redacted
email
thomas@acme.comRedacted
apiToken
sk_live_abc123xyz789Redacted
amount
149.99
action
checkout

cardNumber + apiToken + email reach Datadog / Splunk

With Cerbi

Score 89 / PASSING
Governed log — reaches pipeline
service
OrdersAPIAllowed
environment
productionAllowed
correlationId
txn-8821-ccAllowed
userId
usr_4421Allowed
cardNumber
***REDACTED***Redacted
email
thomas@acme.comFlagged
apiToken
***REDACTED***Redacted
amount
149.99Allowed
action
checkoutAllowed

Sensitive values never reach your observability pipeline

Step 4 — Audit evidence

Every decision is
stamped and recorded.

CerbiShield receives governance metadata — not raw sensitive values. Each governed event produces a verifiable evidence record for auditors.

governance-evidence.json
Audit Recorded
governedtrue
profileUserAPI
profileVersion1.0.0
score89
riskPenalty11.5
violationCount3

violations[]

cardNumberRedacted
severity: Forbiddenimpact: -5.0 pts
emailFlagged
severity: Warnimpact: -1.5 pts
apiTokenRedacted
severity: Forbiddenimpact: -5.0 pts

Evidence Recorded

What this record gives auditors

What was governed

Which service, which profile version, which fields were evaluated and what decision was applied to each.

Proof of redaction

The raw sensitive value is not present. The record proves governance ran without storing what it protected.

Scoring and risk context

Score, penalty, and per-violation severity give auditors a quantified risk signal, not just a pass/fail stamp.

Remediation evidence

Violation codes map directly to developer fix instructions. The same record drives the refine loop.

Step 5 — Developer fix

Violations drive
concrete code changes.

The audit evidence maps directly to the logging call. Developers don't get a vague compliance complaint — they get the exact field to remove or replace.

Before — unsafe

OrdersService.cs
1logger.LogInformation("Checkout", new {
2 service = "OrdersAPI",
3 correlationId = txn.Id,
4 userId = user.Id,
5 cardNumber = payment.CardNumber, // ← FORBIDDEN
6 apiToken = config.ApiToken, // ← FORBIDDEN
7 email = user.Email, // ← WARN
8 amount = cart.Total,
9});

After — safe

OrdersService.cs — fixed
1logger.LogInformation("Checkout", new {
2 service = "OrdersAPI",
3 correlationId = txn.Id,
4 userId = user.Id,
5 // cardNumber removed — use last4 only
6 last4 = payment.CardNumber[^4..],
7 // apiToken removed — log tokenId instead
8 tokenId = config.TokenId,
9 // email removed — log userId for tracing
10 amount = cart.Total,
11});

After the fix — the governance score for this service goes from 38 to 100. The loop closes. The profile refines.

Where Cerbi fits

Sits before your pipeline.
Replaces nothing.

CerbiShield is a governance control plane. It does not replace Datadog, Splunk, Azure Monitor, OpenTelemetry, SIEM, or APM. Click any layer.

CerbiStream — governance layer

CerbiStream — governance

CerbiStream intercepts the event before emission. Rules are evaluated, fields are redacted or flagged, and governance metadata is attached. All in the same process, before any network call.

C# — NuGet: CerbiStream
services.AddCerbiStream(options => {
  options.ProfilePath = "governance.json";
  options.Environment = "production";
});

Step 6 — The governance loop

A repeatable loop,
not a one-time fix.

Governance compounds. Each pass through the loop catches more violations, fixes more code, and raises the score. Logging matures.

01

Create Rules

Security team defines policy — which fields are Forbidden, Required, or flagged.

Compliance coverage

Evidence for every
regulation that asks about logs.

CerbiShield does not replace a compliance program. It provides verifiable evidence of control wherever a regulation touches log data.

Req 3.4

Render PAN unreadable anywhere it is stored

Cerbi covers this

Redacts cardNumber, cc, creditCard in-process before any persistence or transmission

Req 3.5

Protect PAN with strong cryptography when transmitted

Cerbi covers this

Governed log never contains PAN — interception eliminates the transmission risk entirely

Req 10.3

Protect audit logs from destruction and unauthorized modifications

Cerbi covers this

Governance metadata is append-only and version-stamped, separate from the governed telemetry

Product value

Four dimensions of impact.

CerbiShield is evaluated across the four vectors that matter in enterprise adoption. Click any dimension.

avg 90/100

Ease of Adoption

88/100

CerbiStream installs alongside NLog, Serilog, log4net, or MEL. Existing structured patterns continue to work. Most teams are running governance in under a sprint.

Next step

See Cerbi govern
your log, with your rules.

The interactive demo above runs the full governance engine — no live environment needed. Walk through every stage, add a rule, inject a log, and watch enforcement happen end-to-end.

Azure Marketplace
Deploys in your Azure tenant
Raw values never leave the app
~0ms enforcement overhead
Audit evidence on every event
Cerbi | Multi-Runtime Logging Governance Platform