Hackers hold Western Digital for ransom over the threat of customer data leak

Hackers claim to have accessed Western Digital’s systems and stolen around 10 terabytes of customer data and are urging the company to negotiate a ransom in exchange for not releasing the stolen data.

One of the hackers contacted TechCrunch and verified their claims by providing more details, such as Western Digital’s code-signing certificate, phone numbers allegedly belonging to several company executives, and data from SAP Backoffice (an interface which allows business users to easily manage user commerce data).

The hacker did not disclose why Western Digital was targeted or any information about themselves.

Western Digital reported a network security incident on 3 April, admitting that hackers had gained access to some of the company’s systems. The incident took Western Digital’s cloud network offline for 10 days. This is also the second time that Western Digital has been hit by security issues, the last time being in 2021.