Impact: Remove Bulk Data From Disk

This document describes a threat finding type in Security Command Center. Threat findings are generated by threat detectors when they detect a potential threat in your cloud resources. For a full list of available threat findings, see Threat findings index.

Overview

A process was identified performing bulk data deletion operations, which could indicate an attempt to erase forensic evidence, disrupt services, or execute a data-wiping attack. This activity is concerning because attackers may remove logs, databases, or important files to cover their tracks or sabotage the system. Data destruction is often part of ransomware attacks, insider threats, or advanced persistent threats (APTs) attempting to evade detection and cause operational damage.

Agent Platform Threat Detection is the source of this finding.

How to respond

To respond to this finding, do the following:

Review finding details

  1. Open the Impact: Remove Bulk Data From Disk finding as directed in Reviewing findings. Review the details on the Summary and JSON tabs.

  2. On the Summary tab, review the information in the following sections.

    • What was detected, especially the following fields:
      • Program binary: the absolute path of the executed binary
      • Arguments: the arguments passed during binary execution
    • Affected resource, especially the following fields:
      • Resource full name: the full resource name of the affected Vertex AI Agent Engine resource

  3. On the JSON tab, note the following fields.

    • resource:
      • project_display_name: the name of the project that contains the affected Vertex AI Agent Engine resource
    • finding:
      • processes:
        • binary:
        • path: the full path of the executed binary
      • args: the arguments that were provided when the binary was executed

  4. Identify other findings that occurred at a similar time for the affected AI agent. Related findings might indicate that this activity was malicious, instead of a failure to follow best practices.

  5. Review the settings of the affected AI agent.

  6. Check the logs for the affected AI agent.

Research attack and response methods

  1. Review MITRE ATT&CK framework entries for this finding type: Data Destruction.
  2. To develop a response plan, combine your investigation results with MITRE research.

Implement your response

For response recommendations, see Respond to Vertex AI Agent Engine threat findings.

What's next