Local Law Enforcement and F.B.I Say You Should Reboot Your Router
The F.B.I issued a warning to all Americans that their internet routers may be compromised by "foreign cyber actors"....a.k.a Russians.
The statement says, "The FBI recommends any owner of small office and home office routers reboot the devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices. Owners are advised to consider disabling remote management settings on devices and secure with strong passwords and encryption when enabled. Network devices should be upgraded to the latest available versions of firmware."
According to Ars Technica, the malware known as VPNFilter may be in more than 500,000 devices made by Linksys, Mikrotik, Netgear, QNAP, and TP-Link.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, negative consequences of VPNFilter malware infection include:
- temporary or permanent loss of sensitive or proprietary information,
- disruption to regular operations,
- financial losses incurred to restore systems and files, and
- potential harm to an organization’s reputation.
Rebooting and changing any passwords associated with your router should take you no longer than 10 minutes, so what are you waiting for?