Western Digital told Bleeping Computer that WD doesn't believe that its servers were compromised. It's currently unclear if malicious actors can access your files or just delete them. It's not unusual for users to have no backups or just a single backup. Although the product hasn't been supported for years, that doesn't mean that users didn't have important, sensitivity data stored on the My Book Live. The device connects to a local network and internet through an ethernet cable, through which users can remotely access the device and its stored files. Image credit: WD forumsĪs WD mentions, the My Book Live hasn't been officially supported since 2015, so it's possible a security flaw has existed for years without being exploited or discovered.
Some users are unable to log in and data has been deleted. We are actively investigating and we will provide updates to this thread when they are available.' At this time, we recommend you disconnect your My Book Live from the internet to protect your data on the device. We understand that our customers' data is very important.
The My Book Live device received its final firmware update in 2015. In some cases, this compromise has led to a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device. 'Western Digital has determined that some My Book Live devices are being compromised by malicious software.
In a statement to customers, Western Digital states that a malicious actor is behind the issue. Some users have been able to dig into an activity log for their My Book Live and found evidence of an initiated factory restore and shutdown. Screenshot from a Western Digital forum thread User dalogan72 writes, 'All data gone, what kind of security is this?'
Previously the 2T volume was almost full, but now it shows full capacity.' Many other users are reporting the same issue. One user, sunpeak, wrote, 'I have just found that somehow all the data on it is gone today, while the directories seems there but empty. WD has advised customers to unplug My Book external hard drives from the web until further notice, as customers are reporting that their data has been completely deleted.Īrs Technica reports that WD's support forum shows that numerous users have lost their data with no obvious hope for recovery. If SmartWare can’t open and stay open on its own with NO WD connected, then that’s a sign the separate unlocker won’t work either on that system.If you use a Western Digital My Book Live, you want to disconnect it from the internet immediately. Try a registry clean-up and a defrag, otherwise you’re stuck on that computer. IF the unlocker app is crashing on the W8 computer with an error message then that’s something completely different than implying the encryption system was designed for not supporting a different OS.
You just connect it, open the unlocker app, input the password and done. There is nothing specific to be done s it has nothing to do with OS compatibility or settings.
If you can explain how to get it to work on a Win 8 computer, you could have answered me earlier. Searched Google, tried a few things - as I explained - came here, read a few pages of people having similar problems, asked a question, got no answer, waited a few days, found a computer that runs on Vista and surprise, it worked on that computer. The drive says it is 100% full, but I obviously can’t access the data or see what’s on it because the drive is protected by WD Smartware. Even if the solution is buying a new drive and somehow transferring the (inaccessible) data onto that. So how do I get access to my data? I need a solution. So I tried some of the ‘solutions’ out there. Instead, everything I clicked on in File Manager gave me the “The application has encountered an unexpected error and is now exiting” message which I then discovered is a common problem because frustrated users have been asking why this is happening for years, just google it. I had expected to plug it in and be prompted for the password. Plugged it into a new laptop and immediately started having problems.
Today, I took it out of storage and attempted to access the data. In 2012 I put it in a nice, safe place, climate-controlled, and left it there until today. Loaded it with data and used it for a year or two, with no problems. I purchased a My Passport a few years ago.