compliance/audit_trail.rs - Audit Trail Management System Abstract

High-Level Purpose

Comprehensive audit trail management system for research compliance, providing detailed logging, tracking, and reporting of all system activities, user interactions, and data modifications with configurable audit levels and retention policies.

Key Data Structures and Relationships

• AuditTrailManager: Central audit management with configurable settings
• AuditEvent: Immutable event records with comprehensive metadata
• Actor/Resource/Operation Model: Fine-grained action tracking with structured relationships
• Configuration Hierarchy: Flexible audit levels (Minimal → Standard → Detailed → Forensic)
• Event Classification: Structured event types (Authentication, Data Access, System Events, etc.)

Main Data Flows

• Event Collection: Real-time capture of system activities with structured metadata
• Session Management: Session-based event correlation and tracking
• Filtering Pipeline: Configurable event filtering based on audit level settings
• Report Generation: Automated compliance report generation with statistical summaries
• Data Export: Structured export capabilities for external compliance systems

External Dependencies

• chrono: Timestamp management and date/time operations
• serde: Serialization for audit record persistence and export
• tracing: Structured logging integration with audit events
• uuid: Unique identifier generation for audit event tracking

State Management Patterns

• Event Accumulation: Append-only event storage with immutable records
• Session Context: Maintained session state for event correlation
• Configuration State: Runtime configuration management for audit behavior
• Retention Management: Automated cleanup based on configurable retention policies

Core Algorithms and Business Logic Abstractions

• Event Classification: Automatic categorization of events by type and importance
• Level-Based Filtering: Dynamic filtering based on configured audit granularity
• Integrity Verification: Event integrity checking through checksums and validation
• Compliance Reporting: Statistical analysis and summary generation for regulatory reporting
• Data Anonymization: Privacy-preserving audit trails with configurable anonymization

Security and Compliance Features

• Immutable Records: Tamper-evident audit trail with integrity verification
• Privacy Controls: Configurable data anonymization and field hashing
• Role-Based Tracking: Detailed actor classification and role-based access patterns
• Retention Compliance: Automated retention management meeting 7-year research standards