A client brought to our attention a story released today (5/29/18) concerning an FBI warning that a Russian Malware is infecting certain routers. We’ve done a little bit of investigating before sending out this notice, and have determined that the news is legitimate. If you are running a router, no matter what brand, then you need to immediately unplug the power to it, plug it back in and wait for it to start back up. This will cause the router to break any connection and not reconnect if the hackers did manage to gain access.
Once you’ve restarted the router, the firmware will need to be updated. If you feel comfortable doing this yourself, by all means, do it at the first opportunity. If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself, we will be happy to take care of this for you. This is not something we can do remotely. The options are for you to bring it into the shop, or we can come to your home or business. In either instance, it is best to schedule this as we do not want you to be without internet for any longer than necessary.
The gist of this attack is the hacker gains control of your router and can do at least two bad things.
- They can disconnect you from the internet entirely.
- They can intercept any and all information that passes through your router to your computers/tablets, phones…. Etc
Both are pretty serious. Please power cycle your router (as described above) right away. The firmware should be updated as soon as possible.
It should be noted that if you have a SonicWall firewall, you are safe and do not have to take any action at this time.