U.S. and British cyber agencies are again warning that one of the most overlooked devices in homes and small offices may also be one of the easiest to exploit: the internet router. In April, the National Security Agency said it supported an FBI public service announcement after U.S. and international law enforcement disrupted a network of compromised small-office and home-office routers tied to malicious hijacking activity.

The concern is not theoretical. According to the NSA, Russian military intelligence hackers have been collecting credentials and abusing vulnerable routers worldwide, including some TP-Link devices affected by a known flaw. The FBI said the routers were being used in DNS hijacking schemes, in which internet traffic is quietly diverted through attacker-controlled systems, making it possible to steal passwords, authentication tokens and other sensitive information.

The Justice Department and FBI said their court-authorised disruption targeted the U.S. portion of a broader router network linked to Russia’s GRU Military Unit 26165, better known as APT28, Fancy Bear or Forest Blizzard. The agencies said the compromised devices were being used against targets of intelligence interest, including people in the military, government and critical infrastructure sectors. The NSA had already warned in 2024 that the same unit was using compromised routers to harvest credentials, proxy traffic and host spearphishing pages.

For ordinary users, the message is to treat the router as a front door, not an afterthought. The NSA’s earlier home-network guidance and the latest warning both point to the same basic defences: reboot the router, install firmware updates, replace default administrator credentials, disable remote management unless it is genuinely needed and retire devices that no longer receive support. The agency says teleworkers should also make sure home access to employer systems is properly hardened, including through VPNs where appropriate.

The latest alert is less a call for alarm than for maintenance. A router that is patched, properly locked down and still supported by its maker is far harder to abuse than one left on autopilot for years. For households, churches, charities and small businesses alike, the practical fix may be as simple as closing the digital door before anyone tries the handle.

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Source: Noah Wire Services