DATA DOCTORS

Default router passwords

Mar 10, 2015, 11:00 AM | Updated: Apr 24, 2015, 8:13 pm

Your wireless router is your primary line of defense against Internet threats, because it prevents the outside world from having direct access to your computers.

Unfortunately, most of you haven’t addressed a major security issue because you’ve left the administrative password at the factory defaults.

I’m not talking about your wifi password, I’m talking about the username and password that allows you to make changes to the router.

Every hacker knows every password for every router on the market through sites like http://www.RouterPasswords.com and now a new threat has emerged.

Security researchers have discovered a new attack that’s sent via e-mail that allows cyber-thieves to sneak into routers that are still using the default password.

Once they’re in, they change the settings so that they can monitor all your activity and steal online credentials for any of your online accounts.

The bad news is, your security software can’t detect this type of exploit.

The only protection is to change the default password, so if you don’t know how, get some help.

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Default router passwords