Do you have a wi-fi router? Feds urge you to restart it
A simple thing could help stop a potential data breach determined to be "significant."
The Department of Homeland Security is urging anyone with a home or business wi-fi network to turn their router off and on in order to thwart malware that used local area networks (LAN) to collect data and block network traffic.
The reboot will prevent the malware to be removed and will ensure that second stage malware is not downloaded again. Users should also make sure their devices have all updates installed and the password changed to something "strong."
"The malware can render a device inoperable, and has destructive functionality across routers, network-attached storage devices, and central processing unit (CPU) architectures running embedded Linux," feds said.
DHS said processes running with the name "vpnfilter" are almost certainly instances of the second stage malware but even that is a fairly easy fix. Terminating these processes and removing associated processes and persistent files that execute the second stage malware would likely remove this malware from targeted devices.
Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ