Contributing a Group to a Community or Source

Contributing a Group

1. Navigate to the legacy Details screen for a Group that belongs to an Organization.
2. Click the Sharing tab. The Sharing screen will be displayed (Figure 1).
   
   Note

   The Sharing tab is available only on the legacy Details screen.

   

    

3. Click the Contribute to Community/Source… button to contribute the Group to a single Community or Source, or click the CONTRIBUTE TO MULTIPLE... button to contribute the Group to multiple Communities or Sources at one time. The Initial screen of the Contribute to Community/Source window will be displayed (Figure 2).

   

    

   • Select Community/Source: Select the Community or Source with which to share the Group. If the CONTRIBUTE TO MULTIPLE... button was clicked in Figure 1, then this dropdown menu will be a multiselect list. If the Group is shared with the Common Community, then all Organizations will have access to the Group. If the Group is copied to any other Community or Source, then only Organizations with access to that Community or Source will be able to access the Group.
   • EXISTING GROUP: If merging the contributed Group with an existing Group in the Community or Source, select EXISTING GROUP and begin to enter the name of the existing Group in the Group Name text box, which will auto-populate with available possibilities after three characters have been entered. The EXISTING GROUP option will not be available if contributing to multiple Communities or Sources.
   • NEW GROUP: If creating a new Group, select NEW GROUP. The name of the original Group will auto-populate in the Group Name text box. This name can be changed, if desired.
   • Click the Next button.
4. The Data screen will be displayed (Figure 3).

   

    

   • Copy Attributes?: Select Yes to copy the original Group's Attributes to the contributed Group.
     Note

     If you are recopying (recontributing) the original Group to the same Community or Source and select Yes, new Attributes added to the original Group after its previous contribution will also be added to the recontributed Group. In addition, if the values for existing Attributes in the original Group were updated, the values for those same Attributes will also be updated in the recontributed Group. No Attributes will be removed from the contributed Group, even if those Attributes no longer exist in the original Group. See the “Recontributing a Group” section for more information.
   • Include Tags?: Select Yes to associate all Tags from the original Group with the contributed Group.
     Note

     If you are recopying (recontributing) the original Group to the same Community or Source and select Yes, new Tags applied to the original Group will also be applied to the contributed Group. No Tags will be removed from the contributed Group, even if those Tags are no longer applied to the original Group. See the “Recontributing a Group” section for more information.
   • Create Tags That Don't Exist?: This option allows you to determine whether Tags associated with the original Group that do not already exist in the Community or Source will be created and associated with the contributed Group or excluded from the contribute operation. This option is available only if Yes is selected for Include Tags?. Select Yes to create Tags that do not already exist in the Community or Source. Select No to include only Tags that already exist in the Community or Source.
   • Copy Associated Groups?: Select Yes to copy Groups associated to the original Group to the Community or Source and associate them to the contributed Group. Select the checkbox for each Group type to copy, or select the Select All checkbox to select all Group types. See Group Hierarchy and Association Directionality for more information about which Groups associated to associated Groups will be copied.
     Important

     The Task Group cannot be copied as an associated Group because this Group type may contain sensitive information and is specific to users in a given Organization.
     Note

     If you are recopying (recontributing) the original Group to the same Community or Source and select Yes, new Groups associated to the original Group will also be copied to the Community or Source and associated to the contributed Group. No associated Groups will be removed from the contributed Group, even if those Groups are no longer associated to the original Group. See the “Recontributing a Group” section for more information.
   • Click the Next button.
5. The Security Labels screen will be displayed (Figure 4).

   

    

   • Exclude: By default, the Exclude option is selected. If this option remains selected, then the Choose Security Labels dropdown menu is used to select the Security Labels that will determine exclusion for associated Indicators, Groups, and Attributes, where objects with any of the selected Security Labels will be excluded.
   • Include: Selecting the Include option causes the Choose Security Labels dropdown menu to be used to select the Security Labels that will determine inclusion for associated Indicators, Groups, and Attributes, where objects with at least one of the selected Security Labels will be included.
   • Copy System-level Security Labels: By default, the Copy System-level Security Labels option is selected, which will cause only System-level Security Labels that are assigned to associated objects to be copied.
     Note

     If you are recopying (recontributing) the original Group to the same Community or Source and select Yes, new System-level Security Labels applied to the original Group will also be applied to the contributed Group. No Security Labels will be removed from the contributed Group, even if those Security Labels are no longer applied to the original Group. See the “Recontributing a Group” section for more information.
   • Choose Security Labels to apply to copied data: Selecting the Choose Security Labels to apply to copied data: option will display three dropdown menus (Figure 5). Use these menus to select Security Labels from the Community or Source to apply to the Group being contributed and its associated objects.

     

      

   • Click the Next button.
6. The Save screen will be displayed (Figure 6).

   

    

   • Suppress Notifications?: To disable notification messages about the contribution to members of the Community or Source, select Yes. Otherwise, keep the default selection of No.
   • Review the list of associated Groups that will be copied into the Community or Source and associated to the contributed Group.
   • Merge Hashes: If contributing a Group with an associated File Indicator that exists in the Organization and target Community or Source, select this checkbox to synchronize the file hashes between the two File Indicators. If you do not select this checkbox and the file hashes between the two Indicators are not synchronized, an error message will be displayed directing you to either correct the discrepancy manually (by canceling out of the Contribute to Community/Source window, adding the missing file hash to the File Indicator in the target Community or Source, and then restarting the contribution process) or select the Merge Hashes checkbox to correct it automatically (by clicking the Back button, clicking the Next button on the Security Labels screen, and then selecting the Merge Hashes checkbox, which will no longer be grayed out). If the File Indicators contain mismatched hashes that cannot be merged, or if the File Indicator in the Organization and the File Indicator in the target Community or Source contain duplicated hashes, the contribution process will fail and you will be prompted to correct the discrepancy manually.
   • Publish after Copy: Select this checkbox to publish the data in a package so it may be shared across ThreatConnect instances.
   • Click the Save button.

The Sharing tab of the Group's legacy Details screen will now show all Communities and Sources from which and to which the Group has been contributed (Figure 7).

Viewing Properties of a Contributed Group

On the Sharing tab of the legacy Details screen for a Group contributed to a Community or Source (Figure 7), click Propertiesin the Options column to view a read-only summary of the options selected during the contribution process (Figure 8).

Recontributing a Group

If updates are made to a Group after it was contributed to a Community or Source (e.g., a new Tag is applied, an Attribute’s value is updated), it can be helpful to recopy (recontribute) the original Group to the same Community or Source. Doing so ensures that the contributed Group reflects the updates made to the original Group.

1. Click Recopyin the Options column for the original Group on the Sharing tab of the legacy Details screen (Figure 7). The Initial screen of the Contribute to Community/Source screen will be displayed with the EXISTING GROUP option selected and the name of the original Group pre-populated in the Group Name text box (Figure 9).

   

    

   • Select Community/Source: Keep the selection of the Community or Source in which the Group is contributed.
   • EXISTING GROUP or NEW GROUP: Keep the selection of EXISTING GROUP.
   • Group Name: By default, the name of the contributed Group will be pre-populated. Do not change this value.
   • Click the Next button.
2. Follow Steps 4–6 in the “Contributing a Group” section to complete the recopying (recontributing) process.

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20001-02 v.14.B