Western Digital says hackers stole data in ‘network security’ breach

Data storage giant Western Digital has confirmed that hackers exfiltrated data from its systems during a “network security incident” last week.

The California-based company said in a statement Monday that an unauthorized third party gained access to “a number” of its internal systems on March 26. Western Digital did not confirm the nature of the incident or reveal how it was compromised, but its statement suggests the incident may be ransomware-related.

“Based on the investigation to date, the company believes the unauthorized party has obtained certain data from its systems and is working to understand the nature and scope of that data,” Western Digital said.

It is not yet known who was behind the attack. The incident does not seem to have been claimed by a large ransomware group yet.

Western Digital notes that the incident “has caused and may continue to cause disruption” to the company’s business operations. The company did not provide further information. As of this writing, Western Digital’s Service Status website confirms that the incident has disrupted its My Cloud network-attached storage (NAS) service, which allows customers to access their files. from the Internet.

Western Digital said it was “implementing proactive measures to secure its business operations” and working to restore affected infrastructure and services. The company added that it was investigating the incident with an anonymous cybersecurity firm and coordinating with law enforcement.

Western Digital spokesperson Robin Schultz has yet to respond to questions from TechCrunch.