Supported editions for this feature: Enterprise Plus, Education Plus. Compare your edition
As your organization's administrator, you can use the security investigation tool to run searches related to Gmail log events, and to take action based on search results. From the investigation tool, you can view a record of actions to see your organization's user and admin activity in Gmail—for example, when emails are classified as spam, released from quarantine, or sent to admin quarantine. If you have the appropriate privileges in the investigation tool, you can also view the content of a Gmail message as part of an investigation.
You can also conduct a search based on Gmail log events, and then use the security investigation tool to take action—for example, to delete specific messages, mark messages as spam or phishing, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes.
Run a search for Gmail log events
Your ability to run a search depends on your Google edition, your administrative privileges, and the data source. You can run a search on all users, regardless of their Google Workspace edition.
To run a search in the security investigation tool, first choose a data source. Then, choose one or more conditions for your search. For each condition, choose an attribute, an operator, and a value.
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Security
Security center
- Click Data source and select Gmail log events.
- Click Add Condition.
Tip: You can include one or more conditions in your search or customize your search with nested queries. For details, go to Customize your search with nested queries. - Click Attribute
For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section (later on this page). - Select an operator.
- Enter a value or select a value from the list.
- (Optional) To add more search conditions, repeat steps 4–7.
- Click Search.
You can review the search results from the investigation tool in a table at the bottom of the page. - (Optional) To save your investigation, click Save
Notes
- In the Condition builder tab, filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators. You can also use the Filter tab to include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results.
- If you gave a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename [email protected] to [email protected], you will not see results for events related to [email protected].
Attribute descriptions
For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Attachment extension | ID of the Chrome browser |
| Attachment hash | SHA256 hash of the attachment |
| Attachment malware family | Malware category, if detected when the message is handled—for example, Content may be harmful, Known malicious program, or Virus/worm |
| Attachment name | Name of the attachment |
| Client Type | Gmail client type—for example, Web, Android, iOS, or POP3. |
| Date | Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone) |
| Delegate | Email address of the delegate user who performed the action on the owner's behalf |
| Device session identifier | The unique ID generated for a mail client user session |
| DKIM domain | The domain authenticated with the DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) mechanism |
| Domain | The domain where the action occurred |
| Event | The logged event action, such as Attachment download, Link click, Send, or View. |
| From (Envelope) | Sender's envelope address |
| From (Header address) | Sender's header address as it appears in the message headers, for example, [email protected] |
| From (Header name) | Sender's header display name as it appears in the message header |
| Geo location | ISO country code based on the relay IP |
| Has attachment | Email includes an attachment |
| Has delegate | Whether or not there was a delegate user who performed the action on the owner's behalf |
| IP address | IP address of the mail client that started or interacted with the message |
| Link domain | Domain(s) extracted from link URLs in the message body |
| Message ID | The unique message ID located in the message header |
| OAuth project ID | Cloud console project ID of the developer who authenticated with OAuth |
| Owner | Owner of the email message. For an inbound message it's the recipient. For an outbound message it's the sender. |
| Sender domain | Domain of the sender |
| Spam classification | Spam classification of the email message—for example, Spam, Malware, Phishing, Suspicious, or Clean (not spam) |
| Spam classification reason | Reason for the message being classified as spam—for example, Blatant spam, Custom rule, Sender reputation, or Suspicious attachment |
| SPF domain | Domain name used for Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication |
| Subject | The email subject line |
| Target attachment hash | Information about the SHA256 attachment hash if a user interacts with a message's attachment |
| Target attachment malware family | Information about the attachment malware family if users interact with a message's attachment—for example, Content may be harmful, Known malicious program, or Virus/worm |
| Target attachment name | Information about the attachment name if users interact with a message's attachment |
| Target drive ID | Information about the Drive ID if users interact with a message's Drive item |
| Target link URL | Information about the link URL if users interact with a message's link |
| To (Envelope) | Recipient's envelope address |
| Traffic source | Indicates if an email is sent/received internally (within your domain) or externally |
- You can set up alerts based on log event data using reporting rules. For instructions, see Create and manage reporting rules.
- Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
To help prevent, detect, and remediate security issues efficiently, you can automate actions in the security investigation tool and set up alerts by creating activity rules. To set up a rule, set up conditions for the rule, and then specify what actions to perform when the conditions are met. For details and instructions, see Create and manage activity rules.
Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
After you run a search in the security investigation tool, you can act on your search results. For example, you can run a search based on Gmail log events and then use the tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details, go to Take action based on search results.
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