Western Digital My Book Drives Are Vulnerable To Attack, Can Be Erased

If you are using an internet-connected Western Digital My Book Live or My Book Live Duo personal cloud storage device, you would be wise to disconnect it immediately. The company has determined that a cyber-attack can compromise these drives, completing resetting them and erasing all stored data in the process.

"Western Digital has determined that some My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices are being compromised through exploitation of a remote command execution vulnerability," a note on the official support page said. "In some cases, this compromise has led to a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device."

Neither drive has received a firmware update in six years, and that will probably have to change pretty soon if users want to safely connect the devices again. They're designed to create personal storage clouds for multiple devices in your home, backing up your PCs, streaming media to your TVs, and centralizing files across several computers. Should you be using it for something like old game saves, such a compromise could erase your progress for good.

Western Digital now sells a newer line of personal cloud drives under its My Cloud line. These were not mentioned in the notice and should remain safe to use. The My Cloud Home Duo also comes with two hard drives and a "Mirror Mode" to back up everything twice.