Agricultural values also wrong: Seagate hard drives are becoming more and more refined 39 comments
Picture: Seagate
In case of fraud with Seagate used as sold, there are new ideas that are not exactly optimistic. Until now, agricultural values that can be found with special tools were a good way to check actual operating hours, this data is now also faked by fraudsters.
Heise reports that, citing new information from these betrayed buyers. “Apparently, the scammers managed to change a value that has until now been considered a clear indication of fraud: the number of operating hours in agricultural values,” writes Lutz Labs, which discovered the scandal together with those affected.
Now it may no longer be sufficient to offset the operating hours stored in smart values with the corresponding information on agricultural values (field-accessible reliability metrics) in order to expose fake new assets.
Further information on the true age must now be
Rather, other references such as operating hours of individual heads must be provided. Alternatively, a preview of the log files is worth it. If the self-test log or error log is already filled in correctly, this clearly speaks of the new goods. This method is recommended for testing on Toshiba and Western hard drives, because agricultural values like with Seagate do not exist.
Heise also writes that a long-term production date can also be an indication of used goods: “More than six months should not need a hard drive for the way to the end customer”. A missing sticker on the front, which normally carries the serial number and a barcode, is also an indication.
The stickers on the top of the hard drive have already been fake. Here it is worth calling up the QR code with your smartphone: “Usually, the barcode on the sticker leads to the website with the warranty request, the serial number is already pre-documented. With fake stickers, however, you have to enter the serial number yourself, “says Heise.
What has happened so far
At the end of January, the first cases of fraud at Seagate, purchased in online trading, became known. A few weeks later, reports of manipulated hard drives of the Seagate Ironwolf series followed.
In the meantime, Heise reported that the manipulated hard drives could come from China. Seagate had repeatedly assured that they had nothing to do with the fraud and wanted to investigate the incidents.
Most recently, Seagate had announced that most of these hard drives should come from OEMs or a cloud provider. However, these companies should not be involved in the fraud. “Anyone who then modified these drives and sold them as new is under investigation,” Heise wrote after the contact with Seagate.
Topics: Seagate Hard Drives Storage
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