Citrix Analytics for Security

Users dashboard

Overview

The Users dashboard is the launching point into user behavior analysis and threat prevention.

This dashboard provides visibility into user-behavior patterns across an organization. Using this data, you can proactively monitor, detect, and flag behavior that fall outside the norm, such as phishing or ransomware attacks.

To view the Users dashboard, navigate to Security > Users. The Users dashboard contains the following sections:

  • Overview: The overview section provides summaries on metrics that can help understand the overall security posture of your organization.

    Users dashboard

  • User Risk Distribution: Number of users in high, medium, low, and non-risky profiles based on their highest computed risk score in the selected time period.

  • Top Users: Top Users by sorted by their risk score segmented by All Users, Privileged Users, Watchlist Users.

  • Risk Categories: Displays the risk categories that Citrix Analytics supports. Risk indicators with similar behavioral patterns are grouped into the categories.

  • Risk Indicators and Actions: Distribution of risk indicators and actions plotted over selected duration across all users in your organization.

  • Access Summary: Summarizes the total number of attempts that users have made to access the resources within your organization.

  • Policies and Actions: Displays the top five policies and actions applied on user profiles.

  • Risk Indicators: Displays the top five risk indicators in your organization.

All discovered users

Total number of users in your organization using the data sources for which you have enabled Analytics. They might or might not have a risk score associated with their account. It is possible that the number of discovered users on the Users dashboard is more than the number of risky users.

Click the All Discovered Users tile on the dashboard to view the Users page that displays a complete list of users discovered by Citrix Analytics. The Users page displays the data sources, risk scores, and the workspace application status along with the discovered users.

Note

On the Users dashboard and the Users page, the number of discovered users are displayed for the last 13 months irrespective of the selected time period. The actions and events count changes based on the time selection.

Discovered users section

Facets

Filter the user events based on the following categories:

  • Risk Score: User events based on high risk, medium risk, low risk, and zero risk scores.

  • User: User events based on admin privilege, executive privilege, and watchlist users.

  • Discovered Data Sources: User events based on the data source that you have onboarded.

  • Workspace App Status: Supportability status of Citrix Workspace app versions used on the user device.

    Note

    The Workspace app status is determined from the user events received from the Citrix Director. To view the status, you must connect your Citrix Analytics to Citrix Director. Otherwise, the status of all the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS users is shown as Inactive.

Use the search box to search events for the users. You can use operators in your query to narrow down the focus of your search. For information on the valid operators that you can use in your query, see Self-service search.

Latest score

The risk score determines the level of risk a user poses to an organization for a specific time period. The risk score value is dynamic and varies based on user behavior analytics. Based on the latest risk score, a user can fall under one of the categories: high risk user, medium risk user, low risk user, and user with zero risk score.

User

List of all users discovered by Analytics. Select a user name to view the user information and risk timeline for the user. The user might or might not have triggered any risk indicator. If there are no risky events associated with this user, you see the following message.

No risky event

If there are risky events associated with a user, you see the risk indicators on their risk timeline. Select the user to view their risk timeline.

A user can be marked as a privileged and added to the watchlist.

Discovered data source

The data source associated to a user. When a user is actively using the data source, Analytics receives the user events from that data source. To receive user events, you must turn on data processing on the data source site card, which is available on the Data Sources page.

Workspace application status

Use the following labels to identify the Workspace application status:

  • Supported: The Citrix Workspace application version is supported by Citrix Analytics and the user events are received from the application.

  • Partially supported: The Citrix Workspace application version is supported but no user events are received from the application. To identify and troubleshoot the issues, see the troubleshooting guide.

  • Unsupported: The Citrix Workspace application version is not supported and no user events are received from the application. The user must update the Citrix Workspace application to a supported version. For the list of supported versions, see the supported clients.

  • Not Available (NA): The user is not using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS data source. They might be using a different data source such as Content Collaboration, Secure Private Access, and Gateway.

  • Inactive: The user does not have any active sessions in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS in the last one week. So, no events are received from the user.

In the last one week, if the user updates the Citrix Workspace application to four different versions (for example: xx, xy, yx, and yy), then the tooltip displays the four different versions. The status changes according to the following scenario.

Scenario Workspace app status
When all four versions (xx, xy, yx, and yy) are supported. Supported
Among the four versions, at least one version (xx) is unsupported and the remaining versions (xy, yx, and yy) are supported. Unsupported
Among the four versions, at least one version (xx) is partially supported and the remaining versions (xy, yx, and yy) are supported. Partially supported
Among the four versions, the (xx) version is unsupported, the (yx) version is partially supported, and the remaining two versions (yx, yy) are supported. Unsupported

Note

The Unsupported status takes precedence than the Supported status and the Partially supported status.

Indicators triggered

Indicates the number of risk indicators triggered across users for the selected duration. Click the Indicators triggered tile to view the risk indicators details. The risk indicator table provides the following detail:

  • Name: The risk indicator name.
  • Severity: The severity of the risk associated with the event. The risk can be high, medium, or low.
  • Data source: The data source on which the risk indicator template applies.
  • Type: Type of risk indicator. A risk indicator can be default or custom.
  • Occurrences: The number of times a risk indicator is triggered for a user. When you select the time period, the risk indicator occurrences change based on the time selection.
  • Last occurrence: Shows the last occurrence date and time.

Risky user link

Actions applied

Indicates the number of actions applied across users for the selected duration. This includes the actions applied manually by the administrators and the policy driven actions. Click the Action applied tile to view the action details. This section does not display the actions that you have applied manually on the user profiles.

Actions applied

The Action table provides the following information:

  • Action: Name of the action applied as per the policy.
  • Users: Number of users on which the action has been applied.
  • Occurrences: Number of occurrences of the action.
  • Date and Time: Date and time of the applied action.

Events processed

Total number of user events received from your connected data sources and processed by Analytics.

User risk distribution

You can view the number of users in high, medium, low, and non-risky profiles based on their highest computed risk score in the selected time period. Below the overall counts, a bar chart shows changes over time in the distribution of low, medium, and high risk users.

User risk distribution

The level of risks are categorised in three color code.

  • Red - Represents high risk users.
  • Orange – Represents medium risk users.
  • Grey – Represents low risk users.

You can view the numbers of risky users (high, medium, and low), while hovering your mouse on the color bars based on a specific time period. You can view the last updated details (date and time) with the data interval information. Click the refresh option to get the updated data.

Total users

Click the Total Users option to view the Users page.

Total users

This page displays all the users and their risk scores. You can use the facets and the search bar to filter the events.

Total users facet

Risky users

Risky users are discovered users who have risky events associated and have triggered at least one risk indicator. The level of risk a user poses to the network for a specific time period is determined by the risk score associated with the user. The risk score value is dynamic and is based on user behavior analytics.

Each user’s risk is regularly updated over time based on user activity. Therefore a user might be medium or high risk at one point in time, but drop to lower risk level later. Based on the risk score, a risky user can fall into one of the following categories:

On the Risky Users page, you can use the facets to filter based on risk levels associated with the selected time period, and the search bar to query for a specific user or users.

Risky users facet

Click the user’s email ID to view the Risk timeline page for that particular selected user. This page displays the risk indicators along with Latest and Highest risk score details based on the selected time period.

Latest and highest risk score

High risk

Users with risk score between 90 and 100. These users have exhibited multiple behaviors consistent with moderate to severe risk factors, and might represent immediate threats to the organization.

On the Users dashboard, you can view the number of high risk users based on the highest computed risk score in the selected time period.

High risk users

Click the High Risk option to view the Risky users page. The page displays the details about the high risk users.

Medium risk

Users with risk score between 70 and 89. These users have typically one or more activities that appear potentially suspicious and/or anomalous, and might be worth monitoring closely.

Medium risk users

Click the Medium Risk option to view the Risky users page. The page displays the details about the medium risk users.

Low risk

Users with risk score between 1 and 69. These users have at least one risk indicator reflecting some unusual or unexpected behavior, but not enough to merit a more serious risk classification.

Low risk users

Click the Low Risk option to view the Risky users page. The page displays the details about the low risk users.

Low risk score

Non risky

Users with zero risk score. These users do not have any risk indicators triggered in their account for the selected time period. These non-risky users can have risk indicator occurrences associated with them although their risk score is zero.

Non-risky users

Top users

You can view the top users in various user categories sorted by highest risk scores for the selected time period. The following Top users table shows the top five highest risk users (all, privileged, and watchlist users) based on their risk score calculated over the selected time period, rather than the latest risk score.

Top users

Note

In earlier versions, the Top Users table always displayed the latest risk score, regardless of the time period selected.

Privileged users

Privileged users are the employees who have legitimate access to sensitive data and system settings in an organization. Because of their privileged rights, the malicious actions of privileged users are often indistinguishable from their everyday activities. Therefore, the actions of privileged users remain undetected for a long time. Such actions expose organizations to a wide variety of risks. To overcome this challenge, Citrix Analytics provides the privileged user monitoring feature. This feature enables you to closely monitor the behavior anomalies of privileged users in your organization.

Under the Users dashboard > Top users section, you can view the top five privileged users based on the highest risk score. The privileged users are categorized as administrators and executives.

  • Admins. Users who have administrator rights to a product or service. For example, when a user’s privilege is elevated to administrator in the Content Collaboration service, this information is displayed on the Users page. You can then monitor the activities of the administrator users.

    Consider the user Maria Brown who was assigned admin privileges in the Content Collaboration service. Maria starts excessively deleting files and folders, and triggers the machine learning algorithm that detected unusual behavior. The Excessive file or folder deletion risk indicator is added to the user’s risk timeline. Citrix Analytics helps you to compare this risk indicator with the information available on the Users page. You can decide whether the risk indicator was triggered after the user was assigned admin privileges in Content Collaboration. If yes, you can take appropriate actions on the privileged user’s profile.

  • Executives. Users, preferably from the top management in your organization. On the Users page, you can add or remove users as executive users. For instructions, see the Add as privileged user and Remove as privileged user sections.

    Consider a scenario where you have added a user as a privileged user. The user starts deleting files and folders excessively, and triggers the machine learning algorithm that detected unusual behavior. The Excessive file or folder deletion risk indicator is added to the user’s risk timeline. Citrix Analytics helps you to compare the risk indicator with the information on the Users page. When you compare the information, you can determine if the risk indicator was triggered after the user was marked as an executive user. If yes, you can take appropriate actions on the user’s profile.

Users dashboard privileged users

Click the See More link in the All users tab to view the Users page that displays privileged users details. After you have navigated to the Users page, you can use the facets to get further details as needed. For example, you can select user as Admins or Executives along with the current risk score. Privileged users are represented with an icon in the USER column.

Note

On the Users dashboard and the Users page, the number of privileged users are displayed for the last 13 months irrespective of the selected time period. When you select a time period, the risk indicator occurrences change based on the time selection.

Add as privileged user

  1. On the Users page, navigate to the All Users table and select the users that you want to add as executive users.

  2. Click Mark Privileged.

Privileged users

Remove as privileged user

  1. On the Users page, navigate to the All Users table and select the users that you want to remove as executive users.

  2. Click Remove from Privileged.

Privileged users

Watchlist users

List of users monitored closely for potential threats. For example, you can monitor users who are not full-time employees within your organization by adding those users to the watchlist. You can also monitor users who trigger a specific risk indicator frequently. You either add a user to the watchlist manually or define policies to add users to the watchlist.

If you have added users to the watchlist, you can view the top five users in the watchlist based on the highest score.

Zero users in watchlists

Click the See More link on the All Users pane to view the Users page. The page displays the list of all users in the watchlist.

Note

On the Users dashboard and the Users page, the number of users in the watchlist are displayed for the last 13 months irrespective of the selected time period. When you select a time period, the risk indicator occurrences change based on the time selection.

Learn More: Watchlist

Risk Categories

The Risk Categories donut chart summarizes the number of indicator occurrences by risk category during the selected time period. Unique user counts are displayed on hover over each chart segment, which in turn links to the corresponding Risk Indicator Category overview page. Risk categorization is supported on default and custom risk indicators.

Risk categories dashboard

The purpose of the Risk Categories dashboard is to enable Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS administrators to manage user risks and have simplified discussions with their security counterparts without the need to have an expert-level security knowledge. It allows security enforcement to take effect at an organizational level and is not limited to security administrators alone.

Use case

Consider that you are a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops administrator and you manage the application access rights of employees in your organization. If you go to the Risk Categories > Compromised users > Excessive authentication failures - Citrix Gateway risk indicator section, you can assess whether the employees to whom you had granted access have been compromised. If you navigate further, you can get more accurate insights into this risk indicator such as the failure reasons, sign-in locations, timeline details, and user summary. If you notice any discrepancies between the users that were granted access and users that were compromised, you can notify the security administrator about it. This timely notification to the security administrator contributes towards enforcement of security at an organizational level.

Risk categories use case

How to analyze the Risk Categories dashboard?

When you select See More on the Risk Categories dashboard, you are redirected to the page that summarizes details about the risk categories. This page contains the following details:

  • Risk category report: Represents the total risk indicator occurrences of each category for a selected time period.

    Risk categories page

  • Timeline details: Provides a graphical representation of the total risk indicator occurrences of every risk category for a selected time period. If you navigate to the bottom of this section, you can sort based on risk categories for more accurate insights about the risk indicators.

    Risk categories page

  • Risk category summary: This section provides details such as the impact, occurrences, and severity of the risk indicators associated with each category. Select any risk category to view details about the risk indicators associated with that category. For example, when you select the Compromised users category, you are redirected to the Compromised users page.

    Risk categories page

The Compromised users page displays the following details:

  • Risk Indicator Report: Displays the risk indicators that belong to the Compromised users category for a selected time period. It also displays the total occurrences of the risk indicators that were triggered during the selected time period.

    Compromised users page

  • Timeline Details: Provides a graphical representation of the risk indicator occurrences for a selected time period.

    Compromised users page

  • Risk Indicator Summary: Displays a summary of the risk indicators generated under the compromised users category. This section also displays the severity, data source, risk indicator type, occurrences, and the last occurrence.

    Compromised users page

When you select a risk indicator, you are redirected to the page that summarizes details of that indicator. For example, if you select the First time access from new device risk indicator, you are redirected to the page that summarizes details about this indicator. The summary includes timeline details about the occurrences of this event and a user summary that lists the users that triggered this risk indicator, risk indicator occurrences, and the time of event. When you select a user, you are redirected to the user’s risk timeline.

Compromised users page

Note

Citrix Analytics groups default risk indicators under the appropriate risk category. For custom risk indicators, you must select a risk category on the Create Indicator page. For more information, see Custom risk indicators.

Types of risk categories

Data exfiltration

This category groups risk indicators triggered by malware or by employees that perform unauthorized data transfers or data thefts to or from a device in an organization. You can get insights into all the data exfiltration activities that have taken place during a specified time period, and mitigate the risks associated with this category by proactively applying actions on user profiles.

The Data exfiltration risk category groups the following risk indicators together:

Data Sources User Risk Indicators
Citrix Content Collaboration Excessive access to sensitive files
Citrix Content Collaboration Excessive file downloads
Citrix Content Collaboration Excessive file sharing
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS Potential data exfiltration

Insider threats

This category groups risk indicators triggered by employees within an organization. Since employees have higher levels of access to company-specific applications, organizations are at higher chances of security risks. Risky activities might be intentionally caused by a malicious insider or might be a result of a human error. In either of the scenarios, the security impact on the organization is damaging. This category provides insights into all the insider threat activities that have taken place during a specified time period. With the help of these insights, you can mitigate the risks associated with this category by proactively applying actions on user profiles.

The Insider threats risk category groups the following risk indicators together:

Data Sources User Risk Indicators
Citrix Content Collaboration Excessive file or folder deletion
Citrix Content Collaboration Excessive file uploads
Citrix Content Collaboration Malware files detected
Citrix Secure Private Access Attempt to access blacklisted URL
Citrix Secure Private Access Excessive data download
Citrix Secure Private Access Risky website access
Citrix Secure Private Access Unusual upload volume

Compromised users

This category groups risk indicators in which users display unusual behavioral patterns such as suspicious sign-ins, sign-in failures. Alternatively, the unusual patterns might be a result of the user accounts being compromised. You can get insights into all the compromised user events that have taken place during a specified time period, and mitigate risks associated with this category by proactively applying actions on user profiles.

The Compromised users risk category groups the following risk indicators together:

Data Sources User Risk Indicators
Citrix Content Collaboration Impossible travel
Citrix Content Collaboration Ransomware activity suspected
Citrix Content Collaboration Unusual authentication failures
Citrix Gateway End point analysis scan failure
Citrix Gateway Excessive authentication failures
Citrix Gateway Impossible travel
Citrix Gateway Logon from suspicious IP
Citrix Gateway Unusual authentication failure
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS Suspicious Logon
{page.cvad-and-daas-product-name}} Impossible travel
Microsoft Graph Security Azure AD Identity Protection risk indicators
Microsoft Graph Security Microsoft Defender for Endpoint risk indicators

Compromised endpoints

This category groups risk indicators that are triggered when devices exhibit unsecure behavior that might indicate a compromise.

The Compromised endpoints risk category groups the following risk indicators together:

Data Sources User Risk Indicators
Citrix Endpoint Management Unmanaged device detected
Citrix Endpoint Management Jailbroken or rooted device detected
Citrix Endpoint Management Device with blacklisted apps detected

Risk indicators and actions

You can view the triggered risk indicators and the applied actions for your users for the selected time period. The new Risk Indicators and Actions bar chart provides the counts of indicators, actions, and events detail over time, with overall time range and bar interval derived from the selected time period.

Risk indicators and actions

Clicking a bar segment for either indicators or actions yields a drill-down visualization of the counts per indicator or action, respectively.

Risk indicators and actions bar 1

Risk indicators and actions bar 2

In the indicator drill-down, clicking an individual indicator bar goes to the corresponding risk indicator page, for the selected time period.

Access Summary

This dashboard summarizes all the Gateway access events for a selected time period. It shows the number of total access, successful access, and failed access through Citrix Gateway.

Click the pointers on the graph to view the Self-service search for Gateway page. For successful sign-in scenarios, Gateway access events are sorted by the status code on the page.

Access summary dashboard

Policies and Actions

Displays the top five policies and actions applied on user profiles for a selected time period. Click the See More link on the Policies and Actions pane to get detailed information about the policies and actions.

Policies and actions dashboard

Top Policies

The top five configured policies are determined based on the number of occurrences. When you are in the Top Policies section of the dashboard and select See More, you are redirected to the All Policies page.

Policies and actions dashboard

All policies

This page provides detailed information about all the configured policies. When you select any policy, you are redirected to the Self-service search for Policies page. On the left pane, you can filter based on the actions applied.

When you select a user name, you are redirected to the risk timeline. The policy-based action is added to the user’s risk timeline. When you select the action, its details are displayed on the right pane of the risk timeline.

Top Actions

The top five actions associated with the policies that were applied on the user profiles. This section does not display the actions that you have applied manually on the user profiles. The top actions are determined by the number of occurrences.

Click See More to view all the policies-based actions on the Actions page.

Actions

The page provides the list of all policies-based actions that has been applied on your users for the selected time period. You view the following information:

  • Name of the action applied as per the policy

  • Number of users on which the action has been applied

  • Number of occurrences of the action

  • Number of policies associated with the action

  • Date and time of the applied action

Policies and actions dashboard

Click an action to view all the associated policies. These policies are sorted based on the number of occurrences. For example, click Request end user response on the Actions page. The All Policies page displays all the policies associated with the Request end user response action.

Policies and actions dashboard

On the All Policies page, click a policy to view the user events on which the action has been applied.

Risk Indicators

Summarizes the top five risk indicators for a selected time period. The risk indicators can be default or custom. For default risk indicators, Citrix Analytics collects data from the discovered data sources and on which the data processing is enabled.

For custom risk indicators, Citrix Analytics collects data from the following data sources based on the risky events generated:

  • Citrix Content Collaboration
  • Citrix Gateway
  • Citrix Secure Private Access
  • Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
  • Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

On the Risk Indicators pane, you can view the top five risk indicators and sort them based on total occurrences or severity.

Risk indicators pane

Click See More on the Risk Indicators pane to view the Risk Indicator Overview page.

Risk indicators overview

Users dashboard