Western Digital, the digital storage behemoth, has confirmed that an “unauthorized third party” infiltrated their systems, stealing personal data of the company’s online store customers.
“This information comprised customer names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers,” stated the San Jose-based firm in a disclosure last week.
“Moreover, the database included, in an encrypted format, hashed and salted passwords and partial credit card numbers. We will be in direct contact with affected customers.”
This announcement comes just over a month after Western Digital reported a “network security incident” on March 26, 2023, leading the company to suspend its cloud services.
A follow-up report from TechCrunch last month indicated that the cybercriminals responsible for the breach purportedly possessed “approximately 10 terabytes of data”. They were reportedly bargaining with Western Digital for a “minimum 8 figures” ransom to prevent the data leak.
While the identity of these extortionists remained unknown initially, ALPHV (also known as BlackCat) ransomware operators have since claimed responsibility for the data theft. They issued a final warning on April 18, 2023, for the payment to be made or face the exposure of “significant documents” and “invaluable artifacts.”
The culprits have also posted a variety of screenshots on their dark web portal, which seem to show video calls, emails, and documents related to Western Digital’s incident response efforts, seemingly to demonstrate continued access to the company’s systems even after the breach was discovered.
Western Digital has acknowledged the publication of “other purported Western Digital information,” stated that it is “investigating the authenticity of this data,” and affirmed that it has “control over our digital certificate infrastructure.” However, the company did not reveal the exact number of customers impacted.
