Overview
Once data has been ingested into the ISA platform, Searches can be performed to return IKANOW Documents or Records.
Searches can be performed globally or within the context of a Project. Global searches return results for all the Data Groups to which you have been assigned access by an administrator. Project searches are limited to the Data Groups assigned at the Project level.
About Documents and Records
You can query the Information Security Analytics platform using the query bar, as displayed below. When querying the platform you can choose to display either documents or records. This will depend on the type of data comprised by your data sources.
Documents: The Information Security Analytics document is a representation of the source data after it has passed through the various stages in the source pipeline: Ingest, Transform, Enrich, and Output. Documents contain their own fields as well as sub-objects such as entities, associations, metadata, and query enrichment. This format is good for viewing structured and unstructured data such as "office-style" documents, web pages, RSS feeds etc.
Records: Records are a lighter weight Information Security Analytics object format for storing logs, term/record volumes, or statistics. A very common use case for logs/records is in Dev. Ops environments where log files need to be filtered and appropriately analyzed. When you query the platform with records selected, the output is visualized using Kibana.
Querying the Sources
Once you have created a Project and associated the Data Groups, Users and User Groups, and Data Sources, you can run searches within your Project Workspace. You can also run a Global Search without being within the context of a Project. Global searches return results for all the Data Groups to which you have been assigned access by an administrator.
To query the Project Data
- Select either Documents or Records.
- Enter your search term into the Search bar and click Enter.
The display of the Search results varies based on object format selection: Documents or records.
Documents:
Records:
Records are displayed in Kibana.
Selecting a Project
To limit a search within the context of a specific Project, you need to select the Project.
To select a project
- Click on the name of the current project at top left.
- Find the Project of choice in the dropdown menu.
- Select the Project. You are taken into the new Project workspace, and your search results, as well as any open visualizations are updated accordingly to reflect the data in the applicable Data Groups.
Advanced Search and Filtering
When you run queries against your data sources, it is possible to use Advanced Search, for advanced filtering capabilities. Filtering enables you to narrow your results by applying constraints around Entities, Tags, Verb categories, and Weightings.
To use the advanced query builder
- From the Search results, click on Filter Results. It is also possible to access the settings by clicking Advanced Search next to the Search bar.
Configure the filters, as described in the table below. Based on the various settings, the search results are filtered accordingly.
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Entities | Search results can be easily filtered by entity type so that only documents including those entity types are returned to Dashboards, score cards etc. Possible values:
|
| Tags | When sources are added to the platform tags can be applied. These tags can then be used to limit a query to a subset of documents within a Project based on document tags. |
| Verb Categories | You can filter returned associations by using verb types. For example, you can only return associations with the verb category "travel," to encompass associations with verbs such as "flew" and "drove". Possible verb category filters are populated by the platform. |
| Weightings | In scoring, weightings enable you to further alter query output results. For example, you can set a central point in time, around which results are promoted. For more information see below. |
2. Click on Run Search.
The advanced query is executed against the sources and the results are returned.
About Weight by Time Decay:
You can set a central date (date and time) around which results will be promoted. Results after that central point in time are demoted as per the half-life setting.
Half-Life Setting Example:
1m (one month) time decay - results within 1 month of the entered date are promoted to top of results; results between 1 to 2 months from decay time are halved; results 2 to 3 months from decay time are quartered, etc.
In this section:
Related Documentation: