Ciscohas admitted
that around 80 of its router products sold to home consumers,
home workers and small offices are potentially open to data
hacking attacks.
The routers are susceptible to the type of attack publicised by
researchers at
Indiana University and Symantec last week.
A number of other home router manufacturers’ products are also
affected by the threat, and users can probably expect future
admissions of susceptibility in the future.
The researchers have demonstrated that data can be stolen and
routers crashed as a result of users visiting rogue websites loaded
with specially coded Java script.
The code allows hackers to take advantage of weaknesses in home
routers if users have not changed the default usernames and
passwords that come loaded with the router.
Cisco has advised users to change these details on installation,
although the researchers have not so far reported any attacks in
the wild that use the flaw.
View the Cisco advisory
Home routers are open to remote attack
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