Data storage provider Western Digital Corp publicly reported what it referred to as a  “network security incident” on Monday. While few details have been provided the incident has some security experts concerned about potential data privacy considerations.

While the incident was publicly reported on April 3, the company's statement revealed that the network security issue was actually first identified days earlier on March 26.

"In connection with the ongoing incident, an unauthorized third-party gained access to a number of the company’s systems," Western Digital stated. "Based on the investigation to date, the Company believes the unauthorized party obtained certain data from its systems and is working to understand the nature and scope of that data."

Western Digital also noted that it has engaged with security and forensics experts and is also coordinating with law enforcement.

Going a step further, Western Digital is adopting proactive measures to safeguard its business operations, which involves temporarily shutting down systems and services. Among the impacted services are the My Cloud, My Cloud Home, My Cloud Home Duo, My Cloud OS 5, SanDisk ibi, and the SanDisk Ixpand Wireless Charger. Western Digital actually began reporting an outage on April 2, one day before Western Digital's public disclosure.

Experts contacted by SDxCentral had their own opinions about the impact of the Western Digital security incident.

"This is your standard breach where someone accessed their internal systems but there is no mention of a ransom or any removal of data," Matthew Fulmer, manager of Cyber Intelligence Engineering at Deep Instinct, told SDxCentral.

The precise cause of the Western Digital security incident is not currently known. That said, Fulmer speculated that there could be any number of root causes behind the incident. It could be something as basic as weak passwords of someone leaking information or selling access.

Balaji Ganesan, CEO and co-founder of Privacera also wasn't terribly surprised about the network security incident.

"Western Digital’s incident is unfortunate, but it is not uncommon," Ganesan told SDxCentral.

Ganeson noted that one of the biggest challenges in today’s online world is providing the proper access privileges to the right people. He added that too often, the focus is on the perimeter and network and not enough focus is placed on what happens when someone gets past that gate.

While an attacker was able to gain access, it isn't entirely clear what was actually taken. Ira Winkler, Field CISO and Vice President at CYE commented that he suspects that the breach likely involves a theft of intellectual property (IP).

"IP theft is unfortunately common in this industry, and Western Digital is a leader in the field and has a lot of data attractive to competitors," Winkler told SDxCentral. " It is possible that they have some information about clients, such as warranty registration related information, and some personal information on their employees. "

Winkler has a few recommendations for Western Digital users.

For customers of  Western Digital that provided the company with information related to warranties or repairs, Winkler advises extra diligence with any email messages appearing to be from Western Digital. The risk is that there could be phishing messages that might intend to steal user credentials, or potentially try to trick people into installing “software updates” that are actually malware.