One of the biggest problems that users face on the Internet, or when using devices in general, is the loss of data. Losing all the content that we have stored can seriously affect our day to day, our work or personal organization. That’s what those who own a WD My Book NAS have suddenly found themselves. They have been emptied remotely and all the content has been saved.
WD My Book NAS Devices Reset Worldwide
Having a NAS device has become widely used by home users in recent years. A way to have everything stored, to be able to share files between teams, to access audiovisual content from anywhere or even to store backup copies. This means that, in the event of a problem, it could seriously affect our day-to-day lives since many trust important files and documents here.
Now, those who use a WD My Book NAS have suddenly found themselves with the total loss of what they had in storage . All those who had their device connected to the network have seen how it has been reset to factory settings and all the information has been emptied.
The owners of these devices have found that they could not log in either through the browser or the application. Their account had been reset and they were simply getting the message that the password was wrong. Furthermore, they saw that their files had mysteriously disappeared. Everything had been erased. When buying a NAS you have to take into account some aspects to avoid problems.
Through the Western Digital forums, many users are posting messages warning of this error. They report how suddenly all the files they had stored there have disappeared. Now the device is as if it had been recently purchased.
An attack could be behind the problem of the WD My Book NAS
Behind all this could be a cyber attack , although at the time of writing this article is not exactly known. It should be noted that these Western Digital My Book computers are stored behind a firewall and communicate through the My Book Live cloud servers. This allows users to access remotely.
The suspicion that many users have is that a hacker has managed to attack Western Digital’s servers and send a factory reset command to all computers remotely.
However, in case it really was a cyber attack, the goal was simply to destroy the information . So far no financial ransom has been requested, as we have seen with ransomware attacks on similar devices.
In the WD forum we can see a large number of users reporting this serious problem. Many indicate that they have lost all the photos they had stored there, important files or backup copies of other devices.
Some say they are terrified how remotely and without users’ permission, it is possible to factory reset their WD My Book NAS. Undoubtedly something that for many has been able to incur a significant economic cost. We can see this image below in the WD forum, where an affected user has uploaded it.
The last update was in 2015
A very important point to note is that the last update was in 2015 . It is really significant that a device of this type, where users store all their files and where they trust their data, has not been updated for six years. We always say that keeping our equipment and systems up to date is very important, but even more so when it comes to equipment permanently connected to the network.
In most problems of this type, there is usually a vulnerability that has not been corrected. This can open the door for a hacker to exploit it and launch their attacks. We have seen cases where it can be used to deploy ransomware or, like what we describe in this article, carry out total file erasure.
At the moment, the only recommendation they give is that all users who have a WD My Book NAS avoid connecting it to the network. But of course, there are many who have already been affected by this serious incident.
