AWS S3: The New Battleground for Ransomware – Are You Prepared?

Ransomware is advancing at an unprecedented pace, and attackers are expanding their reach beyond just laptops and servers.

Nowadays, the cloud has emerged as a key target, with Amazon S3 buckets being at the forefront of these complex attacks. By leveraging AWS’s own features—like Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C)—attackers can encrypt data directly in the cloud.

Here’s how they operate:

Attackers obtain valid AWS credentials through phishing or by taking advantage of misconfigurations.

They utilize these credentials to overwrite your S3 data, encrypting it with their own keys.

While the files may appear unchanged—same names, same structure—the content becomes completely inaccessible.

What makes this tactic even more perilous? AWS does not keep customer-provided keys. If the keys are lost or fall into the hands of the attacker, your data is irreversibly encrypted.

Why Traditional Defenses Are Insufficient

Conventional security tools, such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), lack visibility into cloud activities.

No insight into S3 actions: Encryption takes place entirely within AWS through API calls, evading endpoint defenses.

Legitimate-seeming activity: Stolen credentials make these actions look normal.

If your security strategy is solely focused on endpoints, you won’t detect the attack until it’s too late.

Call to Action

Watch the video below to discover more about how ransomware is targeting S3 buckets, why traditional defenses are inadequate, and what steps you can take to safeguard your data.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/cb4d03_5d0b6c5cb33e455b891201b2f24e182a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Ransomware is evolving—and your cloud storage is now a target. Learn how attackers exploit AWS S3, why traditional defenses fail, and what you can do to protect your data. Watch now!