Investigations in

Visualize and document the steps you take during an investigation by creating and adding details to an investigation in .

• Start an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.
• Add details to an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.
• Make changes to an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.
• Collaborate on an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.
• Review an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.
• Share or print an investigation in Splunk Enterprise Security.

You can manage, start, and add details to investigations on the Investigations dashboard. View or filter the investigations assigned to you, or create one. You can view all investigations that you collaborate on using the Investigations dashboard. Enterprise Security admins can also view and manage all investigations that exist in Splunk Enterprise Security. For information for admins, see Manage investigations in Splunk Enterprise Security in Administer Splunk Enterprise Security.

As an analyst, you only see investigations assigned to you unless you also have been granted the capability to manage all investigations.

Manage your investigations

Manage ongoing investigations from the Investigations view. You can see the titles, descriptions, time created, last modified time, and collaborators on the investigations assigned to you. If you have the capability to manage all investigations, you can see all the same details for all investigations, not just the investigations that you collaborate on.

Find an investigation or refine the list of investigations by filtering. Type in the Filter box to search the title and description fields of investigations.

Example investigation workflow

1. You are notified of a security incident that needs investigation through a notable event, an alert action, or by an email, ticket from the help desk, or a phone call.
2. Create an investigation in .
3. If you must work with someone else on the investigation, add them as a collaborator.
4. Investigate the incident. While you investigate, add helpful or insightful steps to the investigation.
   1. Run searches, adding useful searches to the investigation from your action history with the investigation bar or relevant events using event actions. This makes it easy to replicate your work for future, similar investigations, and to make a comprehensive record of your investigation process.
   2. Filter dashboards to focus on specific elements, like narrowing down a swim lane search to focus on a specific asset or identity on the asset or identity investigator dashboards. Add insightful filtering actions from your action history to the investigation using the investigation bar.
   3. Triage and investigate potentially related notable events. Add relevant notable events to the investigation.
   4. Add notes to record other investigation steps, such as notes from a phone call, email or chat conversations, links to press coverage or social media posts. Upload files like screenshots or forensic investigation files.
5. Complete the investigation and add a note to record a summary of your findings.