Creating Test Alerts

After you successfully connect to a cloud environment, you can create a test alert to confirm it is working and learn more about how Expel responds to incidents.

To do this, you'll take a simple action in your cloud environment. Then, follow the instructions below for your Cloud integration, and receive an email from Expel that shows you what we would do if it were a real incident.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Create a temporary Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project and we'll produce an incident as if it were malicious activity. You don’t have to put anything in the project.

There's nothing inherently malicious in creating a GCP project; this is just an easy way to simulate how Expel responds to actual malicious events.

To create a test alert:

1. Go to the GCP Cloud Resource Manager.

2. Select Create Project.

3. Give the project an ID that starts with expeltestproject. Project names in GCP must be globally unique, so try something like expeltestproject-x8yf92f, but vary the characters at the end.

4. Fill in the billing account, organization, and a location that makes sense.

5. Select Create.

   Within 10-15 minutes, you get an email from [e-mail] with the subject line "Findings ready for review".

6. Select the link in that notification to see the findings report.

You can shut down the project immediately after creating it.

Microsoft Azure

Create an Azure Automation Account named expeltestautomation, and we'll produce an incident as if this were malicious activity. You don’t have to do anything in the automation account.

There's nothing inherently malicious in creating an automation account; this is just an easy way to simulate how Expel responds to actual malicious events.

To create a test alert:

1. Log in to the Azure portal.

2. From the top menu, select + Create a resource.

3. Under Categories, select IT & Management Tools, and then select Automation.

4. Select Create.

5. Select a Subscription and Resource Group.

6. Type the Automation account name expeltestautomation.

7. Select a Region.

8. Select Review + Create, then Create.

   Within 10-15 minutes, you get an email from [e-mail] with the subject line "Findings ready for review".

9. Select the link in that notification to see the findings report.

You can delete the automation account immediately after creating it.