---
title: >-
  S3 bucket with sensitive data is vulnerable to ransomware or deletion via
  internal access
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > S3 bucket with sensitive data is
  vulnerable to ransomware or deletion via internal access
---

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.datadoghq.com/llms.txt).

# S3 bucket with sensitive data is vulnerable to ransomware or deletion via internal access

## Description{% #description %}

An S3 bucket containing sensitive data lacks protective configurations against ransomware or data destruction attacks through internal access. The bucket does not have versioning enabled, Object Lock default retention is not configured, and MFA Delete is not enabled, meaning an attacker who compromises internal IAM credentials with delete permissions can permanently destroy or encrypt bucket contents without the ability to recover previous versions. This attack path enables ransomware-style attacks where data is deleted or overwritten with encrypted versions and held for ransom. For more details on how sensitive data is detected, see the [Cloud Storage Scanning](https://docs.datadoghq.com/security/cloud_security_management/setup/agentless_scanning.md#cloud-storage-scanning).

## Remediation{% #remediation %}

1. Enable [S3 versioning](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Versioning.html) to maintain previous versions of objects, allowing recovery from accidental or malicious deletions.
1. Enable [S3 Object Lock](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/object-lock.html) with default retention to automatically protect new objects from being deleted or overwritten.
1. Enable [MFA Delete](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/MultiFactorAuthenticationDelete.html) to require multi-factor authentication for permanent deletion of object versions.