Russians May Have Hacked Hundreds Of Thousands of Routers Worldwide

Reset your router and download updates now, urges FBI.

The FBI has warned that Russian computer hackers are responsible for a global malware scheme that may have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could be harvesting massive amounts user information. The malware could also even be used to disrupt or shut down network traffic.

The warning comes after the FBI seized a website that the hackers were planning to use to give instructions to the compromised routers.

Reset your router and update it now, say FBI in response to worldwide malware scheme

Critical threat

The threat has been deemed so critical that the FBI has now made a worldwide appeal to request anybody with a router in their home or office to urn it off, turn it back on and then update the routers firmware.

50 countries affected

Infections have so far been detected in more than 50 countries, though speculation has been that the primary target was probably Ukraine, the site of many recent infections and a longtime cyberwarfare battleground.

Sofacy

The US Justice Department has said that the hackers involved have been identified as a group known as Sofacy, an alleged Russian government backed hacker cell.

Global network

According to the FBI, a global network of hundreds of thousands of routers is already under the control of the Sofacy Group. The group, also known as A.P.T. 28 and Fancy Bear  is also believed to be the same group of hackers responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Reboot… now!

The FBI has several recommendations for any owner of a small office or home office router. The simplest thing to do is reboot the device, which will temporarily disrupt the malware if it is present. Users are also advised to upgrade the device’s firmware and to select a new secure password. If any remote-management settings are in place, the FBI suggests disabling them.

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Reset your router and download updates now, urges FBI

The FBI has warned that Russian computer hackers are responsible for a global malware scheme that may have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could be harvesting massive amounts user information. The malware could also even be used to disrupt or shut down network traffic.

The warning comes after the FBI seized a website that the hackers were planning to use to give instructions to the compromised routers.

The threat has been deemed so critical that the FBI has now made a worldwide appeal to request anybody with a router in their home or office to urn it off, turn it back on and then update the routers firmware.

Infections have so far been detected in more than 50 countries, though speculation has been that the primary target was probably Ukraine, the site of many recent infections and a longtime cyberwarfare battleground.

The US Justice Department has said that the hackers involved have been identified as a group known as Sofacy, an alleged Russian government backed hacker cell.

According to the FBI, a global network of hundreds of thousands of routers is already under the control of the Sofacy Group. The group, also known as A.P.T. 28 and Fancy Bear  is also believed to be the same group of hackers responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The FBI has several recommendations for any owner of a small office or home office router. The simplest thing to do is reboot the device, which will temporarily disrupt the malware if it is present. Users are also advised to upgrade the device’s firmware and to select a new secure password. If any remote-management settings are in place, the FBI suggests disabling them.