WD MyBook Data Deletion May be Caused by Two Hacker Groups in Competition with Each Other

WD MyBook's recent data deletion is now being theorized as something which came from two hacker groups that had fought over the right to claim possession of those files. The ending is that, instead of one taking possession, both hackers got nothing as the other wiped all the drives before the other party has taken it for themselves.

This is the current working theory with regards to the data deletion of the WD MyBook phenomenon, which Tech Times have reported earlier. Users which have connected it to the internet found their data being wiped overnight, and were unable to relocate or recover it on their end, and even on WD's.

WD MyBook Data Deletion Theories

In the development of the case, WD has released "Recommended Security Measures" which they would take up for the MyBook Live and MyBook Live Duo, in response to the recent breach they have faced. Here, they have acknowledged that they have been blindsided by the attacks and did not expect that their MyBook will be a target.

It was known that the latest update for the security measures of the MyBook devices and software was in 2015, and it is a long time from now, especially to protect against modern breaches or attacks. Additionally, the MyBook devices are fairly old, and WD has focused their innovations and development on other products which they have.

The unexpected access was a Remote Command Execution Bug, which was a known problem with the MyBook Live, as mentioned by NIST's National Vulnerability Database. Furthermore, working theories suggest that MyBook was caught in the middle of a fight between two hacker groups that have deleted the data instead of the other possessing it.

Can the Data Still be Recovered?

Instead of the malicious software and access of these hacker groups aimed to steal data, WD's MyBook was a victim of data deletion, which was an unusual breach and attack. This being said, there are fears that the data that was wiped would either be very hard to recover and returned to owners, or truly unable to be recovered.

WD's Action Plan

For now, the users will have to wait on WD's development on the case, as the company still investigates and studies how to recover the data. Indeed, the users of the WD MyBook Live that has left it connected to the LAN are suffering a lot, especially as loads of their storage and backups are on the said drives.

WD would continue to look into the case and look for ways in recovering the data or finding those responsible for wiping everything on the live drives.

Currently, there are still no concrete reasons as to why the data was deleted, but it is not due to modern breaches which mostly involve ransomware to extort money from the users and WD.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isaiah Richard