Western Digital Asks 'My Book Live' Device Owners to Unplug After Reports of Remotely Wiped Drives

[Ethosik]

People ALWAYS use the 3-2-1 rule for ANYTHING important. I really mean important because, as frustrating as it might be, I can re-download a lot of stuff like games and iTunes content even though I have them on my NAS.

3-2-1 rule:
3 copies
2 different media
1 offsite.

 

[reyesmac]

Maybe they should spend a few more cents on adding a button on the device that must be held down to authorize a wipe of the drive?

 

[saudor]

From when regular users are better employing enterprise level backup strategy?
This is yet another example of internet connected device getting attacked remotely. Too bad for those people who doesn’t have a second backup.

2nd backup? Not even. From the looks of it, some of them had zero backups. The files on this drive were their only copy.

Drives are super cheap. Backup is super easy - especially on mac. You just literally plug it in. There's no excuse.

 

[MrCrowbar]

I do Time Machine over WIFI, scheduled clones to other USB drives and every couple of weeks I hook up the off-site drives to clone the physical machines and also the backups to it.

I recommend a big USB drive (with the power brick) in the basement inside a watertight Tupperware box. If push comes to shove and your house burns down or gets blown away by a hurricane, chances are the basement is still fine but flooded and you can recover the floating Tupperware box.

 

[velocityg4]

This is not new. Cloud? No, thanks! Nothing like local whatever. Including external portable SSD.

As most people with external drives just leave them connected all the time. Local is no guarantee either. As ransomware will just take out the data on the computer and backup.

Also local is subject to theft, fire, flood, &c. Best to have both local and cloud.

 

[ddtmm]

I don't like to be unsympathetic but anyone who doesn't have a backup of their data is a sitting duck. It's not if, it's when. It sucks that an intentional attack wiped their data and no one deserves that but the outcome is no different than if the drive just died on its own. Gotta have that 2nd copy of your data. You never know...

 

[BeefCake 15]

I do Time Machine over WIFI, scheduled clones to other USB drives and every couple of weeks I hook up the off-site drives to clone the physical machines and also the backups to it.

I recommend a big USB drive (with the power brick) in the basement inside a watertight Tupperware box. If push comes to shove and your house burns down or gets blown away by a hurricane, chances are the basement is still fine but flooded and you can recover the floating Tupperware box.

Keep a protein bar in that Tupperware just in case in this situation!

 

[centauratlas]

"I am totally screwed without that data... years of it."

Just restore from the offline, offsite backup.

 

[MVMNT]

This is QNAP all over again. It's painful to see when you have consumer level-backup approaches carried with consumer-level backup hardware.

 

[Manzanito]

This is a sophisticated enough device/product that you’d think the users would understand that one failure point is unacceptable. if they’re Mac users and didn’t use TM also, then shame on them.

And I really hate victim blaming, but there’s no excuse.

No, apparently you don’t.

 

[JippaLippa]

Unbelievable...

I use cloud storage only for non-sensitive backups.
Everything else is on my backup SSDs

 

[IllinoisCorn]

No, apparently you don’t.

Yeah, I guess I should just admit it's their fault for trusting a system with a single point of failure.

It truly is.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

A lot of people don’t know any better, unfortunately. Too often people think a single backup should suffice. They don’t take into account hardware failure or shouldn’t have happened nightmares like this.

When I first bought a Mac, I was turned off by the insistence from the salesperson to buy a back up drive.

I thought, here I am dropping $1,000.00 on a laptop and here's this jerk suggesting I spend more money!

Now I realize that was the right move---I don't think any company does as much as Apple to make backing things up dead simple.

A $75 hard drive (or cheaper!) could have saved so much heartache for some of these folks.

 

[DarthDon]

2x 8TB. All files are on each drive. If one fails, I still have the other drive in my locker... Never had a problem with them! But I connect just directly to the computer. It's safe

 

[velocityg4]

When I first bought a Mac, I was turned off by the insistence from the salesperson to buy a back up drive.

I thought, here I am dropping $1,000.00 on a laptop and here's this jerk suggesting I spend more money!

Now I realize that was the right move---I don't think any company does as much as Apple to make backing things up dead simple.

A $75 hard drive (or cheaper!) could have saved so much heartache for some of these folks.

Unfortunately, a lot of people. More than you'd think. Don't understand what a backup drive is. That if they put data on the drive and delete it from their computers. The data is no longer backed up.

They just hear they need a backup drive. Get the backup drive. Then think the data is safe. Even if the drive contains the only copy of the files. Because it is a backup drive.

Further they see stuff like data recovery software and data recovery services. So, they think. If a drive fails. They can just use recovery software to get it back.

 

[LeadingHeat]

Uh oh..

Meanwhile, lawyers are popping out from behind trees rubbing their hands together like 🤑

 

[rforno]

repeat after me: home-based, retail-grade NAS's do not need internet access nor should they be masquerading as 'personal cloud' environments for worldwide access to your files.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

Uh oh..

Meanwhile, lawyers are popping out from behind trees rubbing their hands together like 🤑

We are not.

 

[LordVic]

While these home NAS devices are fairly inexpensive ways of getting a small backup solution in your home, there's massive caveats to them

Almost all come with "cloud" solutions that allow you (and therefore others) remotely connect. WD isn't the first who has had this major security issue with their cloud remote access solution.

Just a few months ago, QNAP devices were getting remotely encrypted via QNAP's own built in software. This week it's WD getting remotely wipe from their own built in software.

The only thing I can do is recommend what I do with my enterprise backup NAS's and my own home NAS's. Block them from the internet, and don't use the cloud features. If you want "cloud" solution, keep it seperate from your real backups and backup your "cloud" to the real backup regularly.

Anything that is connect to the internet using 3rd party remote access tools will be possibly at risk.

 

[fontman]

Sad news . I see Lawsuits

 

[DonutHands]

Anyone 'totally screwed' by this would have been screwed eventually by mechanical failure, theft, or some other accident.

 

[Deguello]

I recommend a big USB drive (with the power brick) in the basement inside a watertight Tupperware box. If push comes to shove and your house burns down or gets blown away by a hurricane, chances are the basement is still fine but flooded and you can recover the floating Tupperware box.

Step One: Get myself a basement.

 

[goobot]

Apple needs to make a new time capsule and make it so I can also backup my iOS devices.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Sad news . I see Lawsuits

I don't

The foregoing limited warranty is WD’s sole warranty and is applicable only to products sold as new. The remedies provided herein are in lieu of a) any and all other remedies and warranties, whether expressed, implied or statutory, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, and b) any and all obligations and liabilities of WD for damages including, but not limited to accidental, consequential, or special damages, or any financial loss, lost profits or expenses, or lost data arising out of or in connection with the purchase, use, or performance of the Product, even if WD has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Step One: Get myself a basement.

Safe deposit boxes are less expensive. You are limited to the location’s hours of operation though.