Report email Schedule Delivery (One Time) uses GMT time instead of Enforce local time

Products

• Data Loss Prevention Core Package
• Data Loss Prevention
• Data Loss Prevention Enforce

Issue/Introduction

An incidents report with a 'One Time' distribution schedule delivery may be sent/delivered at an incorrect/unexpected time, including immediately after being scheduled (in the near future) when specified in the new 16.0 angular-based UI. When editing the report schedule delivery, the date/time originally chosen for the One Time delivery may be incorrect in the UI.

Environment

Enforce 16.0.1 RU1 MP1

Cause

The effective date stored in the system (and shown in the UI after the schedule is originally entered/saved) is the actual date/time entered by the end-user, albeit expressed in the GMT time zone instead of the enforce local time zone. Example: with an enforce server located in the PST time zone, a One Time schedule at 05/03/2024 11:00AM PST (Pacific Time zone) will be stored as 05/03/2024 11AM GMT, which will trigger the emailing of the report on 05/03/2024 4AM PST (GMT-7 hours). If a shift backward technically sets the schedule in the past, the emailing of the report will occur (almost) immediately before the schedule disappears. For time zones ahead of GMT, the opposite scenario will happen: the emailing of the report will be delayed by (Local Enforce time zone - GMT timezone) hours.

A similar problem and side effect is at play with the end date (Until <Date>) of the other scheduling modes: By Minute, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly. For these modes, you specify and time and/or a frequency, as well as an end date. The distribution will be allowed to run/execute until the very last second (23:59:59) of that end date. This 'date end time' will also be incorrectly translated to GMT which might make the distribution stops prematurely on that day or continue unexpectedly into the next day depending on the server time zone (behind or ahead of GMT).

Resolution

This is fixed in DLP 16.1 (release date: 29th October 24)

Workaround:

Do not use the Send Report / Edit Distribution UI to schedule the report. Instead, go to Incidents / All Reports, locate the report that must be scheduled, and click on the 'Schedule Distribution' icon on the right side of the screen. This uses the old DLP 15.x UI that is not impacted by the timezone defect nor the locale defect.