So, You Think YOUR Router is Secure?
You Might Not be as Protected as You Think…

Remember Samy Kamar (also known as JS.Spacehero)? In October of 2005, Samy Kamkar went looking for new friends on MySpace. He developed a worm that propagated across the MySpace social networking site.

See this new story: Secure Your Router

Amongst other things, it was known as the Samy worm. At the time of release, it gained significant media attention. Within just 20 hours of its October 4, 2005 release, over 1 Million users had activated the worm, making Samy one of the fastest spreading viruses of all time.

Samy Kamkar entered a plea agreement on January 31, 2007 to a felony charge. The action resulted in Kamkar being sentenced to three years probation, 90 days community service and an undisclosed amount of restitution.

So, what does that have to do with routers? 

He is now out of probation, and apparently not changing his mischievous and damaging ways… He is currently warning about new dangers that he is creating. This time his sights are set on routers.

Almost all businesses that have more than one computer connected to the internet use a router to handle this traffic. Typically, they are cheap to buy and easy to install. In one sense, a router is nothing more than a very simple computer that does one thing very well - and usually doesn’t require any interaction with a person.

Samy Kamar is now creating ways to infiltrate routers, and bend them to his use.

So what could he do exactly? Chances are, he could…

1.      disable them

2.      change the wireless settings so someone not in the office could get access to your network.

3.      install programs on the router that would let people infiltrate your networks, and steal data or bend computers to their uses.

4.      he could also pinpoint the exact location of your router at your office.

Yes, this has horrifying possibilities - as this kind of information was never available before without your permission. And we’re not sure how he’s going to do it just yet...

So, how do you protect yourself?

Be sure to change the default password that came with your router to a unique one you know, and you will have a better chance of locking Samy out.

Please consult your router vendor’s website for additional instructions.

If you need more assistance, please contact Todd Anderson with Ovate Software directly at 518.396.0531, or via email at todd@ovartesoftware.com for no obligation no-charge help.

Ovate Software provides professional safety audits of your office network for no charge, and no obligation.