Shield Alert Events

Box Shield must be purchased and enabled on a Box enterprise to take advantage of the advanced security offerings outlined below.

Threat detection alerts

Shield threat detection delivers context-rich alerts on potential threats, such as compromised accounts and data theft, based on anomalous user behavior.

The possible alerts produced by Shield are for:

1. Suspicious locations
2. Suspicious sessions
3. Anomalous downloads
4. Malicious content
5. Ransomware activity (part of Shield Pro)

All Shield threat detection alert events are produced within the stream. These events follow the standard event object schema and the event_type value is set to SHIELD_ALERT.

{
  "source": null,
  "created_by": {
    "type": "user",
    "id": "2",
    "name": "Unknown User",
    "login": ""
  },
  "action_by": null,
  "created_at": "2019-12-20T11:38:56-08:00",
  "event_id": "97f1b31f-f143-4777-81f8-1b557b39ca33",
  "event_type": "SHIELD_ALERT",
  "ip_address": "10.1.2.3",
  "type": "event",
  "session_id": null,
  "additional_details": {
    "..."
  }
}

The additional_details object provides information about the specific type of shield alert that triggered the event.

Suspicious locations alert

A suspicious locations alert is produced when Shield detects a user accessing content from an unusual, excluded geographic location, or ‘host’ IP address. It can be identified by the Suspicious Locations value within additional_details.shield_alert.rule_category.

The additional_details payload will provide the following details:

"additional_details": {
  "shield_alert": {
    "rule_category": "Suspicious Locations",
    "rule_id": 123,
    "rule_name": "Suspicious Location",
    "rule_response_action": {
      "restrict_user": true
        },
    "risk_score": 60,
    "alert_summary": {
      "alert_activities": [
        {
          "occurred_at": "2019-12-20T11:37:05-08:00",
          "event_type": "Download",
          "item_name": "xyz.txt",
          "item_type": "file",
          "item_id": "127",
          "item_path": "ABC/DEF",
          "ip_info": {
            "ip": "1.2.3.4",
            "latitude": "37.5555",
            "longitude": "-120.6789",
            "registrant": "Microsoft Corporation",
            "country_code": "US",
            "city_name": "San Jose",
            "region_name": "California"
          },
          "service_name": "Box Excel Online Previewer"
        }
      ]
    },
    "alert_id": 2398,
    "priority": "medium",
    "user": {
      "id": 2320,
      "name": "Some name",
      "email": "[e-mail]"
    },
    "link": "https://app.box.com/master/shield/alerts/2398",
    "created_at": "2019-12-20T11:37:15-08:00"
  }
}

Suspicious sessions alert

A suspicious sessions alert is produced when Shield detects a user accessing content in a session characterized by unusual user-agent strings, unusual IDs, uncommon types of applications, new IP addresses, and an improbably rapid change in the person’s log-in location. It can be identified by the Suspicious Sessions value within additional_details.shield_alert.rule_category.

The additional_details payload will provide the following details:

"additional_details": {
  "shield_alert": {
    "rule_category": "Suspicious Sessions",
    "rule_id": 123,
    "rule_name": "Suspicious Session",
    "rule_response_action": null,
    "risk_score": 77,
    "alert_summary": {
      "description": "First time in prior month user connected from ip 2.3.4.5 First time user agent Some User Agent (Some UA 4.5.6) appeared for user within prior month Apparent distance 9580.0 km between events 59 seconds apart is faster than possible",
      "sessions": [
        {
          "session_type": "suspicious",
          "activities": [
            {
              "occurred_at": "2019-12-19T11:37:00-08:00",
              "event_type": "Set shared link expiration",
              "item_name": "xyz.txt",
              "item_type": "file",
              "item_id": "123456",
              "item_path": "ABC/DEF",
              "ip_info": {
                "ip": "2.3.4.5",
                "latitude": "37.5555",
                "longitude": "-120.6789",
                "registrant": "Microsoft Corporation",
                "country_code": "US",
                "city_name": "San Jose",
                "region_name": "California"
              },
              "service_name": "ServiceName"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "session_type": "typical",
          "activities": [
            {
              "occurred_at": "2019-12-19T11:37:59-08:00",
              "event_type": "Item Modified",
              "item_name": "abc.boxnote",
              "item_type": "file",
              "item_id": "123123",
              "item_path": "folder/sub folder",
              "ip_info": {
                "ip": "4.5.6.7",
                "latitude": "37.5555",
                "longitude": "-20.6789",
                "country_code": "US",
                "city_name": "Some City",
                "region_name": "XYZ"
              },
              "service_name": "Box Notes"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "alert_id": 500,
    "priority": "medium",
    "user": {
      "id": 50500,
      "name": "A b c",
      "email": "a@b.c"
    },
    "link": "https://cloud.app.box.com/master/shield/alerts/500",
    "created_at": "2019-12-20T11:38:16-08:00"
  }
}

Anomalous download alert

An anomalous download alert is produced when Shield detects an account holder who may be stealing sensitive content. It can be identified by the Anomalous Download value within additional_details.shield_alert.rule_category.

The additional_details payload will provide the following details:

"additional_details": {
  "shield_alert": {
    "rule_category": "Anomalous Download",
    "rule_id": 123,
    "rule_name": "Anomalous Download Rule",
    "rule_response_action": null,
    "risk_score": 77,
    "alert_summary": {
      "description": "Significant increase in download content week over week, 9200% (25.04 MB) more than last week 12 additional files downloaded week over week)",
      "download_delta_size": "25 Mb",
      "download_delta_percent": 9200,
      "historical_period": {
        "date_range": {
          "start_date": "2019-12-01T01:01:00-08:00",
          "end_date": "2019-12-08T01:01:00-08:00"
        },
        "download_size": "0 Mb",
        "downloaded_files_count": 1
      },
      "anomaly_period": {
        "date_range": {
          "start_date": "2019-12-08T01:01:00-08:00",
          "end_date": "2019-12-15T01:01:00-08:00"
        },
        "download_size": "25 Mb",
        "downloaded_files_count": 13
      },
      "download_ips": [
        {
          "ip": "1.2.3.4"
        }
      ]
    },
    "alert_id": 444,
    "priority": "medium",
    "user": {
      "id": 567,
      "name": "Some user",
      "email": "[e-mail]"
    },
    "link": "https://cloud.app.box.com/master/shield/alerts/444",
    "created_at": "2019-12-20T11:38:16-08:00"
  }
}

Malicious content alert

A malicious content alert is produced when Shield detects potential malware in content uploading to an account. It can be identified by the Malicious Content value within additional_details.shield_alert.rule_category.

The additional_details payload will provide the following details:

"additional_details": {
  "shield_alert": {
    "rule_category": "Malicious Content",
    "rule_id": 123,
    "rule_name": "Viruses and stuff",
    "rule_response_action": null,
    "risk_score": 100,
    "alert_summary": {
      "upload_activity": {
        "occurred_at": "2019-12-20T11:37:05-08:00",
        "event_type": "Upload",
        "item_name": "virus.exe",
        "item_type": "file",
        "item_id": "127",
        "item_path": "ABC/DEF",
        "sha1_hash": "",
        "ip_info": {
          "ip": "1.2.3.4",
          "latitude": "37.5555",
          "longitude": "-120.6789",
          "registrant": "Microsoft Corporation",
          "country_code": "US",
          "city_name": "San Jose",
          "region_name": "California"
        },
        "service_name": "Service name"
      }
    },
    "malware_info": {
       "file_id": 127,
       "file_name": "malware.exe",
       "file_version": 4239023,
       "file_created": "2019-12-20T11:37:05-08:00",
       "file_created_by": {
         "id": 1010,
         "name": "Bob",
         "email": "[e-mail]"
      },
      "file_hash": "d869db7fe62fb07c25a0403ecaea55031744b5fb",
      "file_hash_type": "SHA-1",
      "file_size_bytes": 51345,
      "file_version_uploaded": "2019-12-20T11:37:05-08:00",
      "file_version_uploaded_by": {
        "id": 1011,
        "name": "Jane",
        "email": "[e-mail]"
      },
      "status": "Malicious",
      "categories": [
        "Adware",
        "SpyWare"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "FILE_MALICIOUS_EXECUTION",
        "FILE_OTHER_TAG"
      ],
      "description": "This is a really bad file",
      "detail_link": "https://some.link/xyz",
      "malware_name": "BadMalware",
      "first_seen": "2019-12-19T11:37:05-08:00",
      "last_seen": "2019-12-20T11:37:05-08:00",
      "family": "MalwareBot4000"
    },
    "alert_id": 2398,
    "priority": "medium",
    "user": {
      "id": 2320,
      "name": "Some Name",
      "email": "[e-mail]"
    },
    "link": "https://app.box.com/master/shield/alerts/2398",
    "created_at": "2019-12-20T11:37:15-08:00"
  }
}

Ransomware activity alert

A ransomware activity alert is produced when Box Shield identifies suspicious file extensions that may be indicative of a ransomware attack. It can be identified by the Ransomware Activity value within additional_details.shield_alert.rule_category.

The additional_details payload will provide the following details:

{
  "source": null,
  "created_by": {
    "type": "user",
    "id": "2",
    "name": "Unknown User",
    "login": ""
    },
    "action_by": null,
    "created_at": "2025-08-19T10:44:26-07:00",
    "event_id": "5b508973-0e48-4bc1-80b2-a05b5382eb37",
    "event_type": "SHIELD_ALERT",
    "ip_address": "1.2.3.4",
    "type": "event",
    "session_id": null,
    "additional_details": {
      "shield_alert": {
        "rule_category": "Ransomware Activity",
        "rule_id": "1234",
        "rule_name": "Ransomware Detection",
        "rule_response_action": {
            "terminate_sessions": true
        },
          "risk_score": 100,
          "alert_summary": {
          "total_files_affected": 42,
          "ip_details": [
            {
             "ip": "1.2.3.4",
             "registrant": "Microsoft Corporation",
             "latitude": "37.5555",
             "longitude": "-120.6789",
             "city_name": "San Jose",
             "region_name": "California",
             "country_code": "US"
            }
           ],
           "suspicious_file_extensions": [
            "lockbit"
           ],
           "anomaly_period": {
            "date_range": {
             "start_date": "2009-02-13T23:31:30Z",
             "end_date": "2009-02-13T23:31:30Z"
            }
          }
        },
        "alert_id": 1234,
        "priority": "medium",
        "user": {
         "id": 8167630149,
         "name": "Some user",
         "email": "[e-mail]"
        },
        "link": "https://app.box.com/master/shield/alerts/1234",
        "created_at": "2025-08-19T10:44:26-07:00"
     }
   }
}

For the Ransomware Activity alert, the rule_response_action object reflects the automated response action taken by Box Shield when the alert was created. The terminate_sessions field indicates whether Box Shield initiated a request to terminate all active sessions of a managed user:

• true — the Terminate Target User Sessions rule setting was enabled, so Box Shield initiated a request to terminate all active sessions of a managed user when the alert was created.
• false — the Terminate Target User Sessions rule setting was disabled, so no automated session termination was taken.

The value of terminate_sessions depends on the Terminate Target User Sessions setting in the rule configuration, which is off by default.