New Scientist reports on hypothetical router virus
3rd February 2009.
New Scientist has reported on a new study by the Hao Hu of Indiana University predicting how long it would take for a router virus to spread and the extent of its coverage.
According to Hao Hu and colleagues, a router virus could infect over 50% of the routers in New York within 24 hours of being released. Chicago, which is less densely populated by wireless routers would take 2 days to infect 25% of their routers.
Scarey stuff!
But, whilst it is hypothetically possible, as routers become more complex, are programmable and many people leave their routers unsecured or don't change the default password, the good news is that a router virus doesn't exist yet. Also, it would be a lot of trouble for a hacker to go to for a limited distribution and fairly easily fixed attack.
Still, it is a timely reminder to make sure you are using wireless security on your router, and to always change the default password.
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