Not rom EPROM. Disc has its own os stored in EPROMs and can be
Re flashed via host Sata interface.
So someone sets up a virus that will flash a hard drive’s EEPROM.
Don’t know what countermeasures the hard drive makers take against this, as they would not want an easily virused product. The cure presumably would be an antivirus against the flashing virus plus a restore of the original EEPROM contents.
Also, it would need some degree of host OS cooperation. More easy with Windows, especially older versions. Less easy with Linux, especially newer versions.
18-year old news. The problem was getting the info off the disk, out through the OS. This was ‘fixed’ by MS in the late ‘90s since hacks were out which used OS TCP/IP stacks to send the info. The unofficial hacks were stopped and the official ones remained. At least that’s my speculation on it.