Items tagged with routers
Do you own a crummy or outdated wireless router? If so, you may not be getting the Internet service you're paying for, especially if you are situated a fair distance away from your router. You can rectify this by buying a modern, high-performance router, and it just so happens that the Linksys EA7500-RM Max-Stream AC1900 is on sale for a ridiculously low $51.99 right now. The sale is good for today only, or until the earmarked units sell out. This router model normally has an MSRP of $159.99, and currently sells on Amazon for $139.99. However, Woot (owned by Amazon) is selling "factory recertified"...
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Cisco, the world's largest networking company in the world, has published additional details in regards to VPNFilter, a nasty piece of malware that was discovered to have infected half a million consumer network devices scattered across 54 countries last month. The company's latest findings indicate that VPNFilter is targeting even vendors, including ASUS, D-Link, Huawei, Ubiuiti, UPVEEL, and ZTEL. It's also attacked new devices from previously affected vendors, including Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, and TP-Link. "In the days since we first published our findings on the campaign, we have seen that...
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Linksys has launched a new version of its Velop mesh router system, one that is smaller and more affordable than its previous offering. The new Velop Dual-Band series is intended to be the world's first mass-market mesh Wi-Fi system, with Linksys claiming it provides the same software features found in its Velop Tri-Band family, including Intelligent Mesh, advanced parental controls, website block, Amazon Alexa compatibility, and more. "Velop is now the most flexible whole home mesh W-iFi system on the market," said Justin Doucette, senior director of product management at Linksys. "We have a Velop...
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Apple is discontinuing its line of wireless routers, including its AirPort Extreme base station and AirPort Express, both of which support simultaneous dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity and can be configured and managed through an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. It's a somewhat surprising move when there is so much focus in the tech industry on the fast growing Internet of Things (IoT) market and connecting homes, though the writing has been on the wall for more than a year. In late 2016, Apple dismantled its AirPort division and reportedly reassigned employees who had been developing...
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Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered a rather nasty malware strain that has been hiding in certain wireless routers for over half a decade. Called Slingshot, the security researchers who discovered the malicious code believe the malware is part of a sophisticated cyberespionage campaign. The malware is present in certain routers manufactured by MicroTik, though Kaspersky says it might also be affecting models by other brands as well. Part of what makes Slingshot particularly dangerous is that it uses a trick to run in kernel mode. This is almost impossible do to in updated operating...
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Upgrading to a mesh network can improve wireless coverage in your home, allowing for faster speeds on devices that sit further away from your router and eliminate dead spots in remote corners. This is especially true if there are several obstructions (walls, doors, and so forth) in your home that sit between your wireless device and router. Unfortunately, upgrading to a mesh setup can be expensive, as it typically requires new equipment. However, ASUS has issued an "AiMesh" update for several of its existing router models that enables them to act as nodes in a mesh network. The update can significantly...
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WikiLeaks has published secret documents belonging to the United States government that reveal the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been building and maintaining cyber tools designed to compromise wireless routers. These tools are the work of the CIA's hacking unit called Engineering Development Group. Among them is a specialized firmware referred to as Cherry Blossom. "The wireless device itself is compromized by implanting a customized Cherry Blossom firmware on it; some devices allow upgrading their firmware over a wireless link, so no physical access to the device is necessary for a successful...
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Most wireless routers are equipped with a series of LEDs to indicate things like network connectivity and activity, though if a router has been compromised with malware, those blinking lights could reveal more than the owner bargained for. Using specially crafted malware, an attacker could instruct those LEDs to transmit data in a binary format.Image Source: TP-Link The attack was outlined in a paper by a team of researches from the Cyber Security Research Center at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. It is the same team of security researchers that previously wrote about data exfiltration...
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It's a good idea to periodically check for firmware updates for your wireless router, even if it appears to be working perfectly. Why? Firmware releases don't just potentially add more features and increase performance, they can also fix security vulnerabilities. Case in point, Netgear said there's a "serious" vulnerability affecting several thousand routers out in the wild.Security researcher Joe Giron discovered the vulnerability when he noticed some funky admin settings on his routers, settings that had been altered by an outside source. Those settings told his Netgear brand router to send web...
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Linksys routers have become virtually ubiquitous in consumers’ homes over the years, but parent company Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is reportedly looking to sell off the brand. Cisco is looking to get out of the consumer business and focus more on enterprise software and services, and unloading Linksys will be a big step in that direction. Linksys will most likely be fine; it’s a valuable brand and will bolster some lucky company’s consumer portfolio, despite some cuts and reductions that Cisco enacted since buying the company for half a billion bucks in 2003. Bloomberg’s sources...
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The FBI recently uncovered approximately 3500 fake Cisco systems routers in government networks, but that isn’t the end of the problem. Now it seems that Cisco routers may soon come under attack by rootkits:"A security researcher has developed malicious rootkit software for Cisco's routers, a development that has placed increasing scrutiny on the routers that carry the majority of the Internet's traffic.Sebastian Muniz, a researcher with Core Security Technologies, developed the software, which he will unveil on May 22 at the EuSecWest conference in London."Considering how many Cisco products...
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