Pull your Western Digital My Book Live NAS off the internet now if you value your files

Western Digital has alerted customers to a critical bug on its My Book Live storage drives, warning them to disconnect the devices from the internet to protect the units from being remotely wiped. In an advisory, the storage firm said My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices were being "compromised through exploitation of a …

[Anonymous Coward]

U Wat?

Can we collect together all the comments:

* you put all your files on one drive, with no backup? fool!

* you put a drive directly on the internet? fool!

* you trusted Western Digital's Internet expertise? fool!

etc., usw., osv., 等等

[Snake]

Re: U Wat?

How about:

* you expect Western Digital to offer you an update on a device that they chose to orphan 7 years ago? fool!

* you expect Western Digital not to soon tell you, "Buy a new device"? fool!

[fidodogbreath]

Re: U Wat?

That pretty much sums up the comments about this issue on Ars Technica.

[Version 1.0]

Today is Yesterday

"NAS drives have Everything connected to the Internet has a storied history of falling victim to malicious actors." FTFY

[Snake]

Re: Today is Yesterday

:lol:

Icon, for implied final result of your comment!

[iron]

There are very good reasons why my NAS is not connected to the Internet, not even through a VPN, and this is now Exhibit 1.

[Dan 55]

They haven't received an update in years, the last one must have been for heartbleed. I think a year without updates would be a signal for those who have their NAS connected to the net to disconnect them.

[Gene Cash]

Confucious say:

"There are those that make backups, and those that have yet to lose irreplaceable data."

"You don't convince family members to take periodic backups. Repeated, tragic data loss convinces family members to take periodic backups. Same as everyone else."

[C-L]

I am amazed

I understand well wanting the convenience of data available even from remote locations. Clearly the data is important to have and to access.

What I fail to understand is the utter neglect exercised by people just dumping their life work somewhere WITHOUT backup.

Cardinal rule NUMBER ONE of *ALL* data storage: BACK THE STUFF UP, MAYBE EVEN MAKE SEVERAL COPIES!

I am sorry for your loss but it also feels you had a hand in the loss, contributing to your own misery.

Ouch!

[Cederic]

Re: I am amazed

My NAS _is_ my backup. It's also accessible from the internet, albeit not directly.

Its backup is not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I am amazed

Because people don't think and they believe the advertising.

Something advertised as reliable; they don't question its security. They don't think about what happens if someone breaks in and steals it. They don't consider what they might do if the building caught fire.

Basically, they don't think that they need to think about these things. We know different, but they don't listen.

[redpawn]

Thank You Western Digital

You have restored my faith in you and your ilk. Why don't you just have your devices catch fire and burn down your customers homes instead?

[normal1]

Re: Thank You Western Digital

Samsung enters the discussion?

[Sitaram Chamarty]

saved me the trouble...

came here to say I have zero sympathy for people who have TERABYTES of data but no backups...

saw that it's already been said, and much better too!

[RLWatkins]

Perhaps I misunderstood the original purpose of this Internet-accessible NAS...

... but it was my impression that it was for *sharing* data, similarly to Drop Box, and not for primary, critical storage, so that it getting wiped was more of a minor inconvenience until it was refreshed from primary sources.

[JBowler]

Now they are offering a 40% discount of their latest mediocre product...

According to the email I received:

>Registered customers can trade in any capacity of a Qualifying Product for one of the following products at 40% off the suggested retail price:

>

>My Cloud Home 2TB (requires internet access)

>My Cloud Home 4TB (requires internet access)

>My Cloud Home 6TB (requires internet access)

>My Cloud EX2 Ultra 2-bay NAS 4TB

>My Cloud EX2 Ultra 2-bay NAS 8TB

So the latter drops to $240 for 2x4TB drives and a dual core Maxwell ARMADA + 1GByte of memory that WD were probably paid to take away. Plus, of course, some software written by people with a now well publicised reputation.

Hum. I think my version of the relevant product travelled via the mighty skip to White City (in Oregon, not The White City) where it now resides under the loving treads of a CAT D9 (you know, one of the ones with the really big wheel next the cab). Anyway, I have a couple of Synology products and I can get a Seagate IronWolf with 8TB capacity for the same price from ex-Bezos, so not me. Might be worth it for someone who hasn't upgraded in, what is it, 10 years?

[Richocet]

I think I updated WD NAS firmware last month, but I disconnected the device from the network just in case. Yesterday I turned off the internet, plugged my WD NAS back into the network to check the firmware version from a PC. BUT the NAS software requires logging in to a WD account to allow access, and an internet connection is needed to the to log in. Genius design WD!!!