Several owners of Western Digital My Book devices took to the official support forums to report that their network-attached storage (NAS) devices were mysteriously wiped clean.
NAS devices are a favorite with cybercriminals and Taiwanese vendor QNAP has faced the brunt of the attacks thanks to the popularity of its NAS devices.
However, Bleeping Computer notes that unlike the network-facing QNAP devices, the attacked My Book devices were behind a firewall and instead rely on the My Book Live cloud servers to provide remote access.
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This has led some users to speculate that the unexpected data erasure could probably be the work of hackers who managed to compromise Western Digital's servers to issue a remote factory reset command to the devices.
Unsolved mystery
Western Digital has acknowledged the behavior, but has shot down suggestions of its servers being compromised.
The company also shared that the My Book Live devices received its final firmware update in 2015, and that it is currently investigating the reason behind the erasure.
Responding to questions from Bleeping Computer, the company said they believe the incidents were the result of individual compromise of the affected devices.
"Western Digital has determined that some My Book Live devices are being compromised by malicious software….At this time, we recommend you disconnect your My Book Live from the Internet to protect your data on the device. We are actively investigating and we will provide updates to this thread when they are available," Western Digital said in its official statement to Bleeping Computer.
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