Data storage giant Western Digital has confirmed that hackers stole a database containing customer information during a March cyberattack.
The stolen data included customer names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers as well as hashed and salted passwords and partial credit card numbers (in encrypted format).
“We are aware that other alleged Western Digital information has been made public. We are investigating the validity of this data and will continue reporting our findings as appropriate,” the company said in an update posted on its website.
“Regarding reports of the potential to fraudulently use digital signing technology allegedly attributed to Western Digital in consumer products, we can confirm that we have control over our digital certificate infrastructure. In the event we need to take precautionary measures to protect customers, we are equipped to revoke certificates as needed. We'd like to remind consumers to always use caution when downloading applications from non-reputable sources on the Internet,” WD added.
The security breach, which took place on March 26 2023, affected some of WD’s internal systems causing disruptions to some of the company’s services, including the My Cloud service.
Subsequent media reports revealed that the attackers behind the breach allegedly stole around 10 TB of data and were negotiating with Western Digital for a ransom of a “minimum 8 figures” to avoid leaking the information.
In late April, the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang took credit for the breach and posted some of the data allegedly stolen from WD on its dark web data leak website. The group also leaked a series of screenshots showing emails, documents, and video conferences, related to the actions Western Digital took following the breach. Among the leaked images was a screen grab of an early morning video conference convened by WD’s incident response team to discuss a recent ransomware attack on the company.
The published screenshots also included what appear to be invoices, development tools, confidential communications, and various internal tools.
