Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: “I’m totally screwed.” WD My Book Live users wake up to find their data deleted

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    #DeSantis2024 Teh One Who Knocks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    5280' Above Sea Level
    Posts
    256,044
    vCash
    10966
    Mentioned
    20 Post(s)
    Thanks
    23,810
    Thanked 113,082 Times in 59,901 Posts

    Warning “I’m totally screwed.” WD My Book Live users wake up to find their data deleted

    DAN GOODIN - ars TECHNICA




    Western Digital, maker of the popular My Disk external hard drives, is recommending that customers unplug My Book Live storage devices from the Internet until further notice while company engineers investigate unexplained compromises that have completely wiped data from devices around the world.

    The mass incidents of disk wiping came to light in this thread on Western Digital’s support forum. So far, there are no reports of deleted data later being restored.

    All my data is gone

    “I have a WD mybook live connected to my home LAN and worked fine for years,” the person who started the thread wrote. “I have just found that somehow all the data on it is gone today, while the directories seem there but empty. Previously the 2T volume was almost full but now it shows full capacity.”

    Other My Book Live users quickly joined the conversation to report that they, too, had experienced precisely the same thing. “All my data is gone too,” one user soon responded. “I am totally screwed without that data... years of it.”

    Multiple users reported that the data loss coincided with a factory reset that was performed on their devices. One person posted a log that showed unexplained behavior occurring on Wednesday:



    “I believe this is the culprit of why this happens,” the person wrote. “No one was even home to use this drive at this time.”

    The My Book is a popular storage device for consumers and businesses. It plugs into computers, typically through USB. The affected model, known as My Book Live, uses an Ethernet cable to connect to a local network. From there, users can remotely access their files and make configuration changes through Western Digital cloud infrastructure. Western Digital stopped supporting the My Book Live in 2015. The support forum thread was first reported by Bleeping Computer.

    Disconnect now

    On its website, Western Digital advised customers to disconnect their My Book Live devices to prevent further attacks while the company investigates the mass wiping.

    In an email, Western Digital officials wrote:



    The limited information available at the moment makes it hard to determine what is causing this mass data destruction. Western Digital’s statement seems to be saying that customer accounts were individually compromised. The advice to unplug devices while the investigation continues is warranted, and users should follow it as soon as possible.

    In the meantime, My Book Live users are trying to manage the hardship brought on by the incident.

    “It is very scary and devastating that someone can do factory restore on my drive without any permission granted from the end user,” one user wrote. “I need a remedy to this issue immediately as this is already incurring a great cost to me.”

  2. #2
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,817 Times in 3,932 Posts

  3. #3
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,754
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,666
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    Wow, what a huge f-up.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •