Filters

Filters is one of the "Common Features" - these are the set of features that apply to all modules in eramba and are used exactly the same way. These features appear at the top of every module: Actions, Filters, Notifications, Reports, etc.

Filters is the most important because they are used to query the data in eramba. Which Risks expire next week? What policies I use relate to PCI? What evidence is missing? etc.. There are many questions that can be answered using filters.

Every module each tab inside those modules has filters.  Without filters we could not display relevant data to you when you load a module. Filters can be saved with any name and conditions you want. By default, when you load any module in eramba, you will be shown at least one filter: "All Items" (a filter that has no conditions and displays all the records in that module).

A set of built in filters are shipped with eramba. The name of the filter, its conditions and the number of results will always be shown to you (see screenshot above).

You can create your own filters and you can modify existing filters.  To create or edit filters you will use the Filter configuration tool that looks like this:

The filter configuration tool allows you to search across multiple modules.  This feature allows you to ask, while in the Policy Module, which policies are used in the PCI-DSS part of the compliance module.  You can choose which columns to display in the output table and, if a cell has many items, you can choose to show their names or a count of the items.

When you show the filter query result you will see that:

• the filter has been modified (but not saved - this indicates that the filter is temporary)
• the conditions applied (in this case, all internal controls used in PCI-DSS that have missing testing)
• the sorting applied
• the number of results (8) that matched this condition

Once saved a filter can be sent by email to you as a notification.  For example: "Every 10 days send me the list of Risks which are High and have non-tested controls as mitigation". Once you create your filter simply attach it to a "Report" notification.

Saved filters are also used on reports.  You can add your "Top ten risks" list to a report on the Risk module by creating a filter "Show all risks, ordered by score, limit 10" and then use the "Filter" widget on the report to include it.

Once you create a filter you can also track, day by day, the number of results it generated and the actual results (full table). This is useful if you want to answer questions such as "What Policies were expired on the 5th of March?" or if you want to build a trend chart with the number of Risks that are categorised as High. The data will be stored in CSV format and available to you anytime.