Admin Data Action log events (beta)

As your organization's administrator, you can use the security investigation tool to run searches and take action on security issues related to Admin Data Action log events. You can view a record of actions performed in the security investigation tool or the Google Workspace Admin SDK Reports API, such as when an administrator accessed, removed, and restored sensitive data from any events.

Your access to the security investigation tool

The security investigation tool requires a premium Google Workspace edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus).
You can access logs using the Chrome browser for the Google apps you have installed. For example, Gmail.
Your ability to run a search in the investigation tool depends on your Google edition, your administrative privileges, and the data source. If you're unable to run a search in the investigation tool for a specific data source, you can use the audit and investigation page instead.
You can run a search in the investigation tool on all users, regardless of the Google edition they have.

Forward log event data to Google Cloud

You can opt in to share the log event data with Google Cloud. If you turn on sharing, data is forwarded to Cloud Logging where you can query and view your logs and control how you route and store your logs.

Run a search for Admin Data Action log events

(Advanced) If you want to automate queries when you run a search, you can use the Admin SDK Reports API instead. For details, go to Reports API Overview.

To run a search in the 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.

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
In the Admin console, go to Menu SecuritySecurity centerInvestigation tool.
Click Data source and select Admin Data Action 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 Attributeselect an option.
For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section (later on this page).
Click Containsselect 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 Saveenter a title and descriptionclick 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 OldName@example.com to NewName@example.com, you will not see results for events related to OldName@example.com.

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
Target Event Data Source	Application from which data was accessed, removed, or restored An event can be uniquely identified by 3 fields: Event ID Data Source Name Time at which the event occurred
Date	Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Target Event IDs	Event IDs of the data that was accessed, removed, or restored An event can be uniquely identified by 3 fields: Event ID Data Source Name Time at which the event occurred
Search Query	Filters applied in the query used to fetch or process data
Justification	If justification text was required for the action, explanation provided by the admin
Target Event Date	Date which the target event occurred An event can be uniquely identified by 3 fields: Event ID Data Source Name Time at which the event occurred

Take action based on search results

After you run a search in the 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 investigation tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details about actions in the investigation tool, go to Take action based on search results.

Manage your investigations

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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: Directly above your list of investigations, under Quick access, you can view recently saved investigations.

Configure settings for your investigations

As a super administrator, click Settings to:

Change the time zone for your investigations. The time zone applies to search conditions and results.
Turn on or off Require reviewer. For more details, go to Require reviewers for bulk actions.
Turn on or off View content. This setting allows admins with the appropriate privileges to view content.
Turn on or off Enable action justification.

For instructions and details, go to Configure settings for your investigations.

Manage columns in your search results

You can control which data columns appear in your search results.

At the top-right of the search results table, click Manage columns.
(Optional) To remove current columns, click Remove item.
(Optional) To add columns, next to Add new column, click the Down arrowand select the data column.
Repeat as needed.
(Optional) To change the order of the columns, drag the column name.
Click Save.