Western Digital has begun advising owners of its WD My Book Live units to unplug them from the internet following a wave of complaints stemming from its support forum regarding total and unrecoverable data loss. As explained by a number of frustrated users (and later confirmed by Western Digital in a statement), WD My Book Live units around the world have wiped themselves after a threat actor managed to compromise the devices and triggered a factory reset that erased all of their data. Unfortunately, recovery efforts have reportedly been in vain. Western Digital discontinued its My Book Live products in 2015.
We have determined that some My Book Live devices have been compromised by a threat actor. In some cases, this compromise has led to a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device. The My Book Live device received its final firmware update in 2015.
Sources: Western Digital, Ars Technica, Bleeping Computer