diff --git a/sage_validation/file_validator/tests.py b/sage_validation/file_validator/tests.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 676ebd605102ad796947e51e5e7b946f30420eb3..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/sage_validation/file_validator/tests.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-"""All the tests for the file_validator app."""
diff --git a/test/conftest.py b/test/conftest.py
index f32a5947d4e438df30201bec9d863bbd9e486ae5..9f0053be849e1cbdc23e7e0e584c33d0517f7260 100644
--- a/test/conftest.py
+++ b/test/conftest.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 import pytest
+from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.core.files.uploadedfile import SimpleUploadedFile
 from faker import Faker
 from rest_framework.test import APIClient
@@ -144,4 +145,8 @@ def mock_meo_database(mocker: MagicMock)-> None:
 @pytest.fixture
 def api_client() -> APIClient:
     """Fixture to return Django API test client."""
-    return APIClient()
+    fake = Faker()
+    user = User.objects.create_user(username=fake.user_name(), password=fake.password())
+    client = APIClient()
+    client.force_authenticate(user=user)
+    return client
diff --git a/test/test_file_validator/test_file_validator_endpoints.py b/test/test_file_validator/test_file_validator_endpoints.py
index 3193a62b63d3e73eb1bd9d5f46127f3adec51a49..ac78502a4b0eb99b30dbc4454863273b288cbae2 100644
--- a/test/test_file_validator/test_file_validator_endpoints.py
+++ b/test/test_file_validator/test_file_validator_endpoints.py
@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ from rest_framework.test import APIClient
 UPLOAD_FILE_URL = reverse("upload-file")
 
 
+@pytest.mark.django_db
+def test_csv_upload_unauthenticated(sample_input_file: SimpleUploadedFile) -> None:
+    """Test that a valid CSV upload succeeds."""
+    api_client = APIClient()
+    response = api_client.post(UPLOAD_FILE_URL, {"file": sample_input_file}, format="multipart")
+
+    assert response.status_code == 403
+    assert response.json()["detail"] == "Authentication credentials were not provided."
+
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 def test_csv_upload_valid(
         api_client: APIClient, sample_input_file: SimpleUploadedFile, mock_meo_database: MagicMock