KavachIQ/Recovery scenarios/Destructive deletion
Illustrative recovery scenario

Recovery scenario: destructive deletion across SharePoint and OneDrive.

See how KavachIQ helps a Microsoft 365 team identify affected users, sites, libraries, and files, restore the right content in the right order, and verify recovery after a high-volume deletion event.

This page describes an illustrative scenario. It is not a customer testimonial and does not contain fabricated metrics. It is intended to help Microsoft 365 teams, IT and security leaders, and procurement reviewers understand KavachIQ in the context of a realistic high-volume deletion event.

Related: Recovery scenario: compromised Global Admin

SECTION 1 · INCIDENT SETUP

What the incident looks like in Microsoft 365

A high-volume deletion event hits the tenant. Content disappears across SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts. The cause could be a compromised identity, a mistaken admin action, or a runaway script or sync client. Recovery has to move forward while that is investigated.

High-volume deletion event

Folders, libraries, sites, or entire OneDrive accounts are removed in a short window. Volume exceeds normal deletion patterns.

Unclear scope for users

Employees notice missing content and surface requests to IT. Different teams report different symptoms, and the real scope is not yet visible.

Multiple SharePoint sites affected

Department sites, shared libraries, and project workspaces show deletions. Content spread across multiple site collections is now in flux.

OneDrive accounts impacted

Several users report missing files across OneDrive. Desktop and mobile sync start propagating the deletions further.

Cause unclear at first

Could be a compromised identity, a mistaken admin action, a runaway sync client, or a script or third-party app. The workflow still has to move forward while the cause is investigated.

Business impact spreads

Sales, legal, finance, and engineering teams begin escalating. The recycle bin is not a coordinated recovery plan, and version history does not cover deleted libraries.

SECTION 2 · WHY MANUAL RECOVERY IS HARD

Where teams run into trouble

Most Microsoft 365 teams can eventually restore deleted content. What makes it painful is the first few hours.

01

Blast radius is unclear. Which sites, libraries, users, and files are actually affected is hard to see across many workspaces.

02

Restore order is unclear. There is no obvious way to decide which content comes back first when business-critical data is mixed with lower-priority content.

03

Recycle bins and version history are not a business recovery plan. Items age out. Some content types are not recoverable once the retention window passes.

04

Restore is fragmented. Admins toggle between the SharePoint admin center, OneDrive admin views, and individual site recycle bins.

05

Triage is slow. Cross-referencing M365 audit logs, SharePoint site activity, and user reports to confirm scope takes hours to days.

SECTION 3 · HOW KAVACHIQ HANDLES RECOVERY

Six phases, applied to this incident

KavachIQ runs the same six-phase workflow on every recovery. Applied to a high-volume deletion event, this is what each phase does.

PHASE 01Protect

Baseline workload state is already captured.

  • SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Teams content snapshotted on a schedule with per-tenant encryption.
  • Snapshots are WORM-locked for the SLA retention window. Attackers or scripts cannot purge protected copies.
  • Identity state is snapshotted alongside data so admin and policy context is available during recovery.
PHASE 02Monitor

Baselines track normal deletion and change volume per tenant.

  • Per-site and per-user deletion rates are baselined over rolling windows.
  • Large deltas in SharePoint library or OneDrive account content are continuously tracked.
  • Correlated identity signals (recent privilege changes, new service principals) feed into the change picture.
PHASE 03Detect

High-volume deletion activity is flagged with evidence.

  • Mass deletions across sites and libraries that exceed baseline produce a specific, evidence-backed alert.
  • OneDrive accounts showing abnormal deletion activity are surfaced individually.
  • If the event correlates with a suspicious identity change, KavachIQ links the two so the team sees the full picture.
PHASE 04Assess

Blast radius is computed across sites, libraries, users, and files.

  • Diff the current SharePoint and OneDrive state against the last known-good snapshot. See exactly which sites, libraries, folders, and files were removed.
  • Group the affected content by site, department, and user. Surface the business-critical workspaces at the top of the list.
  • Confirm identity and admin integrity before any data restore, so the scenario does not silently include a privileged identity compromise.
PHASE 05Recover

Guided restore in a business-safe order.

  • Restore identity controls first if any admin or policy drift is detected alongside the deletions.
  • Recover content for critical users, teams, and high-priority sites first. Executives, legal, finance, and compliance workspaces come back before broader tenant content.
  • Restore shared document libraries and department data next. Granular per-item restore avoids noisy full-site rollbacks when only part of a library was removed.
  • Complete broader tenant recovery after priority content is verified.
PHASE 06Verify

Business recovery is confirmed with evidence.

  • Checksum validation confirms restored files match the protected snapshot.
  • Access checks confirm the right users, groups, and sites can see the restored content.
  • A recovery report bundles the timeline, the restore actions, and the snapshots used, for post-incident review.
SECTION 4 · RECOVERY ORDER

Business-safe restore order for this incident

Identity-first thinking still applies. Confirm the control plane is trustworthy, then recover content in the order that restores business continuity fastest.

  1. 01

    Confirm identity and admin integrity

    If any admin, role, or policy drift is detected alongside the deletions, restore Entra controls first. Do not restore data into a tenant whose control plane is still in question.

  2. 02

    Critical users, teams, and high-priority sites

    Executives, legal, finance, compliance, and incident-response workspaces are restored first. Their content unblocks decision-making for the rest of the recovery.

  3. 03

    Shared document libraries and department data

    Department sites, shared libraries, and active project workspaces are restored next. Granular per-item restore avoids full-site rollbacks when only part of a library was affected.

  4. 04

    Broader tenant recovery, verified end-to-end

    Remaining OneDrive accounts, secondary sites, and long-tail content are restored. Checksums and access checks confirm the tenant is actually back.

SECTION 5 · OPERATIONAL OUTCOMES

What changes for the team

KavachIQ does not prevent every deletion event. It changes how a Microsoft 365 team runs the recovery and how defensibly they can sign off on being back online.

Faster coordination

Teams work from a computed blast radius and a prioritized restore queue instead of triaging from user tickets and admin-center clicks.

Clearer view of affected content

Specific sites, libraries, users, and files are identified. The team can brief leadership on scope with evidence, not estimates.

Safer restore prioritization

Critical workspaces come back first. Business continuity is restored before lower-priority content is touched.

Reduced manual triage

Cross-workload deletion patterns and identity correlation are surfaced directly. Less time in audit logs and admin centers.

Stronger recovery confidence and evidence

Recovery is scored and logged. Security, compliance, and procurement reviewers have a clean artifact of what happened and how it was handled.

Talk through your Microsoft 365 recovery scenario

Walk the destructive-deletion scenario, or your specific incident, with a KavachIQ recovery engineer. Bring the site, library, OneDrive, and workflow details that matter for your tenant.

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