Seagate's fraudulent HDDs now include the IronWolf Pro lineup

In context: Earlier this month, an investigation revealed that Chinese cryptocurrency farmers are passing off their used hard drives as new and selling them to consumers and retailers. The scandal mainly involved Seagate Exos server series HDDs between 12 and 16TB. Samples showed usage between 15,000 and 50,000 hours. Last week, the researchers at Lutz Labs who exposed the fraud found that the scam is more widespread than they initially thought. Based on emails received after breaking the news, investigators discovered that the scammers had tampered with usage metrics in many Seagate Ironwolf and Ironwolf Pro NAS drives so they could pass as new, adding to the number of models affected. The scammers accomplish the ruse by deleting the SMART usage logs, affixing a bogus production date sticker, changing the serial number, and then repackaging them as "new." Even checking the drive's warranty shows it to be good until 2029. However, the team points out several ways to tell if these HDD ... Read full article.