Running common General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance searches

Required data

• Authentication data
• Endpoint data
• Firewall data
• Web proxy data
• Antivirus and antimalware data
• Change events data

How to use Splunk software for this use case

You can use the Splunk platform to manage GDPR in-scope systems to ensure compliance. You can monitor who accesses what systems, what connections occur in your environment, whether systems are patched appropriately, and a number of other key indicators to guarantee compliance with GDPR and facilitate your ability to prove compliance.

• Access to unencrypted resources
• Activity from expired user identity
• Detecting brute force access behavior
• Expected host not reporting events
• Geographically improbable access detected
• Device with outdated anti-malware
• System with the update service disabled
• New connection to device
• Unauthorized connection through firewall
• Unauthorized access to Splunk indexes
• Unauthorized access to systems

Next steps

Measuring impact and benefit is critical to assessing the value of compliance operations. When implementing this use case, you should track the number of out-of-GDPR-compliance incidents detected over time. In addition, review compliance office requirements and reporting policies, and have a method of developing and maintaining an asset and identity catalog with in-scope attributes.

These additional Splunk resources might help you understand and implement this use case:

• Blog: 7 high-risk events to monitor under GDPR: Lessons learned from the ICO’s BA penalty notice

• Splunk OnDemand Services: Use these credit-based services for direct access to Splunk technical consultants with a variety of technical services from a pre-defined catalog. Most customers have OnDemand Services per their license support plan. Engage the ODS team at ondemand@splunk.com if you would like assistance.

• Finally, if you'd like a more efficient way to comply with GDPR, consider upgrading your deployment. Splunk Enterprise Security helps you ingest, monitor, investigate/analyze and act (IMIA) on security data and insights. Click here to see how this use case can be accomplished in Splunk Enterprise Security.