Policy Change Event: 618

Event ID 618 – Encrypted Data Recovery Policy Changed

Whenever there is a change in EFS data recovery agent information, event ID 618 is logged. Since EFS is controlled by group policy, the local computer's name is usually given as the "User Name". To find out more about the changes, the group policy object must be tracked.

This log data provides the following information:

• User Name
• Domain Name
• Logon ID
• Changes Made

Why does event ID 618 need to be monitored?

Encrypting File System is generally used for files that contain private and sensitive information. Unplanned changes to its policy warrants further investigation, and thus, event 618 should be monitored.

Pro Tip:

ADAudit Plus helps you avoid the GPOs monitoring complexities with real-time pre-configured reports and auditing of the changes along with alerts within a Domain & OU. The advanced Group Policy settings real-time audit reports highlight the elusive change details, and also provide the old and new values of the modified attributes.