Zscaler Employment Search Web Activity

name: Zscaler Employment Search Web Activity
id: 5456bdef-d765-4565-8e1f-61ca027bc50e
version: 8
date: '2026-04-15'
author: Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Rod Soto, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
data_source: []
description: The following analytic identifies web activity related to employment searches within a network. It leverages Zscaler web proxy logs, focusing on entries categorized as 'Job/Employment Search'. Key data points such as device owner, user, URL category, destination URL, and IP are analyzed. This detection is significant for SOCs as it helps monitor potential insider threats by identifying users who may be seeking new employment. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate a risk of data exfiltration or other insider threats, potentially leading to sensitive information leakage or other security breaches.
search: |-
    `zscaler_proxy` urlsupercategory="Job/Employment Search"
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY action deviceowner user
           urlcategory url src
           dest
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `zscaler_employment_search_web_activity_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.
known_false_positives: False positives are limited to Zscaler configuration.
references:
    - https://help.zscaler.com/zia/nss-feed-output-format-web-logs
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  src = "$src$" user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$src$", "$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
rba:
    message: Potential Employment Search Web Activity from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$].
    risk_objects:
        - field: src
          type: system
          score: 20
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: url
          type: url
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Zscaler Browser Proxy Threats
    asset_type: Web Server
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1566
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1566/zscalar_web_proxy/zscalar_web_proxy.json
          source: zscaler
          sourcetype: zscalernss-web