Use Case Explorer for Security

The Explorer Map

The Explorer Map below provides a framework for your progress. Across the top are workflow stages (Ingest Data, Monitor & Detect, Analyze & Investigate, and Act & Respond), and below each are focal areas that contain use cases and best practice guidance to make your journey as easy as possible.

Use Case Explorer for Security
Ingest Data	Monitor & Detect	Analyze & Investigate	Act & Respond
Data Availability and Retention Normalization Enrichment	Compliance Visualizations & Reports Risk Based Alerting Security Monitoring	Incident Management Behavior Analysis Threat Intelligence Threat Hunting Cyber Frameworks Fraud	Automation & Orchestration Collaboration & Case Management

Is this your first time using the Use Case Explorer for Security?

►Click here to learn how to use it.

Learning how to use the Use Case Explorer is important to help you successfully get started and to get the most out of your Splunk Security solution, as well as help you see incremental value when incorporating additional solutions.

To use the Use Case Explorer effectively, you'll need to implement and follow a Value Realization Cycle within your organization. Two tools within the Use Case Explorer will help you do this - the Explorer Map and the Use Case Registry.

The Value Realization Cycle

The Value Realization Cycle is a continuous process for identifying, implementing, and evaluating the value of new use cases that your business adopts.

In order to get maximum value out of your investment in Splunk security products, it's vital to intentionally put a Value Realization Cycle in place. We recommend that your organization establishes a use case planning session at least every other month to ideate and refresh new use cases to be deployed.

The Value Realization Cycle consist of a few different steps:

• Step 1 - Define a situation and goal. This can be a very targeted tactical challenge or a more expansive one. For example, you might aim to reduce the mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) of security-related incidents or to automate your incident response.
• Step 2 - Identify and record use cases. There could be one or more use cases that help you improve the situation and achieve the goal you defined in step 1. For example, you might wish to enrich the quality of alerts, or you might have a separate use case for adding threat intelligence feeds. Use the Explorer Map to help you identify use cases you can apply.
• Step 3 - Deploy use case(s) and document the value achieved. Use the Registry to help you track and document your progress.

And then, repeat!

The Explorer Map

The Explorer map is a high-level planning guide to ensure you are targeting all areas of security for your business or mission. You can see the map at the top of this page. Click into the map's workflow stages (Ingest Data, Monitor & Detect, Analyze & Investigate, and Act & Respond), and then the focal areas within each. You'll find use cases and best-practice guidance within each of these focal areas which you can start to apply right away.

You can track your progress in achieving use cases with the Use Case Registry.

The Use Case Registry

The Use Case Registry is a tool used to track the specific use cases you want to deploy, along with the names of use case implementation owners and timelines for completion.

As well as running a regular use case planning session at least every other month, we recommend that you have weekly or bi-weekly team meetings focused on the Use Case Registry to checkpoint and track your progress in achieving the value you've identified from the use cases you choose to implement.

You can create the Use Case Registry in a spreadsheet or project management tool of your choice. Here is an example of a Use Case Registry you can use, or you can download this template file. You might want to add extra columns to these examples to track additional information such as status, prerequisites, or comments.

Workflow Stage	Use Case	Product	Expected Value	Owner	Target Date
Ingest Data	Onboarding data to Splunk Enterprise Security	Splunk Enterprise Security	Identify, ingest and centralize visibility for essential security, infrastructure and application data	Steve Striker	<date>
Monitor & Detect	Monitoring for indicators of ransomware attacks with Splunk Enterprise Security	Splunk Security Essentials	Grow security maturity using expanded use cases and content addressing current and emerging threats	Kenny Powers	<date>
Monitor & Detect	Implementing RBA in Enterprise Security	Splunk Enterprise Security	Reduce alert footprint and identify slow evolving threats	Stacy Rai	<date>
Analyze & Investigate	Using Splunk Enterprise Security to ensure GDPR compliance	Splunk Enterprise Security	Achieve GDPR Compliance	William White	<date>

The Use Case Explorer in Action - Online Boutique

You can follow along with how fictitious company CS Corp applies the Use Case Explorer for Security to their store, Online Boutique.

This example is representative of a real-world application and its underpinning infrastructure. Although your own application and infrastructure will differ from this example, the approach used here is universal and can be applied to any environment. Using the Online Boutique as a guideline, you can see how to establish the different capabilities shown within the Use Case Explorer map.

You can read more about how the Use Case Explorer for Security is used with CS Corp's Online Boutique store here.