Mexico. Recent attacks on Deutsche Telekom routers, which affected approximately 900,000 German homes, have once again exposed vulnerabilities in Internet infrastructure. But what is behind this attack? What economic benefit can be achieved by attacking our home routers?
"Attacks that take advantage of router vulnerabilities are a big deal for the cybercriminal industry," says Tim Berghoff, cybersecurity expert at G DATA. "If the attacks manage to exploit their security holes they may be able to carry out all kinds of manipulations such as, for example, modifying their DNS configuration. This makes it possible to direct Internet traffic to launch denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or even intercept the personal data of Internet users who connect to those routers, including bank card numbers, if you make online purchases; or usernames and passwords of any web service (email, social networks, games...). You can even configure the router to make phone calls to additional rate numbers without the user's consent. The attack on Deutsche Telekom is just the tip of a much larger iceberg and unfortunately we have to be prepared to face similar attacks in the future," Berghoff concludes.
This is why G DATA offers 3 recommendations to protect our routers from cyberattacks
Updates: To protect our router from unwanted access it is essential that it is fully updated. In many cases these updates are made automatically when the router connects with your internet provider, but this is not always the case. It is then when the user has to force this update from the manufacturer's own website.
Passwords: It is highly recommended to change the password that all routers carry by default, not doing so allows cybercriminals to take control of the device very easily.
Only known devices: Finally, it is convenient to configure the router so that it only supports connections from known devices (computers and mobile devices that are part of the home network). This will also prevent third parties from using, for example, our wireless connection.
