Elasticsearch audit logging is crucial for maintaining security and compliance in software systems, particularly for companies adhering to standards like HIPAA and GDPR. The setup involves enabling audit logs through specific configurations in the elasticsearch.yml file, which are off by default. These logs capture vital security-related events such as authentications and data access, providing insights into who accesses the clusters and when. The audit data is stored in a locally-stored JSON file, designed to be human-readable, though not scalable for security monitoring. Filebeat can be configured to stream these logs to other systems for further analysis, such as Kibana or Coralogix, which use machine learning to detect and notify about potential security threats. Coralogix also offers a cloud security platform that can automate the monitoring of similar events without manual setup.