Admin privileges for the security investigation tool

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 use the security investigation tool, you need to be an administrator with security investigation tool privileges. Super administrators have these privileges by default, or you can add them to a custom administrator role. 

Recent changes to log events privileges 

The Audit and Investigation View privilege is now required for Administrators to access log events. 

Roles with only the Reports privilege can no longer access log events.

What you need to know about this change

• Existing administrator roles with the Reports privilege were automatically assigned the Audit and Investigation View, Activity View, and Activity Manage privileges. 
• If you create a new administrator role, you must explicitly assign the Audit and Investigation View, Activity View, and Activity Manage privileges. 
• If an administrator needs the Reports privilege, but doesn’t need to access log events, remove the additional privileges. 
• Roles with only the Reports privilege can no longer access log events.

Administrators with a premium edition

Administrators with a premium edition (for example, Enterprise Plus) can access additional features: 

• With the Audit and Investigation View privilege administrators can:
  • Create a custom chart based on an investigation (only if Security Dashboard is accessible). Learn more
  • Perform actions on log events. Learn more
• With the Activity Rules View and Activity Rules Manage privileges, administrators can create activity rules. Learn more

If an administrator doesn’t need these features, a super administrator can remove the privileges from the role.

Create admin role for security investigation tool

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. Go to Menu  Account > Admin roles.
3. Choose an option:
   • To add the privileges to an existing role, point to the custom administrator role and click View privilegesOpen privileges.
   • To create a new admin role, click Create new role, add a name and description, and click Continue.
4. In the Services section, next to Security Center, click the Right arrow  to expand the privileges.
5. Next to This user has full administrative rights for Security Center, click the Right arrow  to expand the privileges.
6. (Optional) To give the admin access to all Security Center features, including the security investigation tool, check the This user has full administrative rights for Security Center box and go to Step 11.
7. Next to Audit and investigation, click the Right arrow  to expand the privileges.
8. Choose an option:
   • To allow the admin to run searches and see returned results, which could contain sensitive content, check the View box.
   • To allow the admin to update content, for example, change the access control list of a document or delete an email, check the Manage box.
   • To allow admins to view complete messages and attachments, including those that violate DLP rules (if the View sensitive content setting is ON) or are reported as inappropriate, check the View sensitive content box. 
9. Click Save or Continue.
10. If prompted, review the privileges and click Create Role.
11. Assign the role to any users. For the steps, go to Assign roles.

Related topic

• Admin privileges for the security center
• View content that triggers DLP rules (beta)