Chat log events - Google Workspace Admin Help (original) (raw)

Track users conversation and space activity

Depending on your Google Workspace edition, you might have access to the security investigation tool, which has more advanced features. For example, super admins can identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues. Learn more

As your organization's administrator, you can run searches and take action on security issues related to Chat log events. For example, you can view a record of actions to monitor conversation and discussion activity in your organization. You can also see when a user starts a direct message or creates a space.

Run a search for 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.

Audit and investigation tool

To run a search for log events, first choose a data source. Then choose one or more filters for your search.

  1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.
    If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.
  2. To filter events that occurred before or after a specific date, for Date, select Before or After. By default, events from the last 7 days are shown. You can select a different date range or click to remove the date filter.
  3. Click Add a filterand thenselect an attribute. For example, to filter by a specific event type, select Event.
  4. Select an operatorand thenselect a valueand thenclick Apply.
    • (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search, repeat this step.
    • (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR.
  5. Click Search.
    Note:Using the Filter tab, you can include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results. You can also use the Condition builder tab, where the filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators.

Security investigation tool

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your 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.

  1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.
    If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.
  2. Click Data source and select Chat log events.
  3. To filter events that occurred before or after a specific date, for Date, select Before or After. By default, events from the last 7 days are shown. You can select a different date range or click to remove the date filter.
  4. 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.
  5. Click Attributeand thenselect an option. For example, to filter by a specific event type, select Event.
    For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section.
  6. Select an operator.
  7. Enter a value or select a value from the list.
  8. (Optional) To add more search conditions, repeat the steps.
  9. Click Search.
    You can review the search results from the investigation tool in a table at the bottom of the page.
  10. (Optional) To save your investigation, click Save and thenenter a title and descriptionand thenclick Save.

Notes

Attribute descriptions

For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data.

Attribute Description
Actor Email address of the user who performed the action
Actor group name The group name of the actor. For more information, go to Filtering results by Google Group. To add a group to your filtering groups allowlist: Select Actor group name. Click Filtering groups. The Filtering groups page appears. Click Add Groups. Search for a group by entering the first few characters of its name or email address. When you see the group you want, select it. (Optional) To add another group, search for and select the group. When you finish selecting groups, click Add. (Optional) To remove a group, click Remove group . Click Save.
Actor organizational unit Organizational unit of the actor
Actor type Role of the user who performed the action, such as Admin or Non-admin
Attachment hash SHA-256 hash of the chat attachment
Attachment name Name of the attachment sent in a Chat message
Attachment status Whether the message contains an attachment
Attachment URL Download URL of the attachment sent in a Chat message
Conversation ownership Whether the conversation is owned by the customer (internally owned) or by other customers (externally owned)
Conversation type Type of conversation, such as: User to user direct message User to app direct message Group direct message Space
Data loss prevention scan status* Using DLP for Chat , you can create data protection rules to prevent data leaks from Chat messages and attachments (uploaded files). DLP scan status includes values such as Failed, Partially scanned, and Scanned.
Date Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Event The logged event action, such as Message sent, Attachment uploaded, or Direct message started.
External room* Whether members outside the organization can be added to the chat room
Message ID ID of the Chat message
Message type Type of message, such as: Voice message Video message Huddle Regular message
New role New role type for recipients, such as Space manager or Member
Recipients* Recipients of a chat message. This attribute is logged when the following events occur: An invite is sent. A user is blocked or unblocked. A user is added or removed to or from a space or a room. A message is reported. A direct message is sent, edited, deleted, or reacted.
Report ID ID of the Chat message report
Reporting category* Category of the Chat message report, such as Spam, Confidential Information or Sensitive Information
Room history setting Whether Chat room history is turned on or off
Room ID Chat room ID
Room name Chat room name

* You cannot create reporting rules with these filters. Learn more about reporting rules versus activity rules.

Note: 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 OldName@example.com to NewName@example.com, you will not see results for events related to OldName@example.com.

Manage log event data

Export search result data

You can export search results to Sheets or to a CSV file.

  1. At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
  2. Enter a name and then click Export.
    The export displays below the search results table under Export action results.
  3. To view the data, click the name of your export.
    The export opens in Sheets.

Export limits vary:

For more information, go to Export search results.

Take action based on search results

Create activity rules & set up alerts

Take action based on search results

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; 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.

Manage your investigations

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

View your list of investigations

To view a list of the investigations that you own and that were shared with you, click View investigations . The investigation list includes the names, descriptions, and owners of the investigations, and the date last modified.

From this list, you can take action on any investigations that you own, for example, to delete an investigation. Check the box for an investigation and then click Actions.

Note: You can view your saved investigations under Quick access, directly above your list of investigations.

Configure settings for your investigations

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