NOT A HOAX: FBI Says to Restart Your Router.

48thStreetCustom

48thStreetCustom

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Nov 30, 2005
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#1
"The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation recommended in a Friday statement that “any owner of small office and home office routers” reboot the devices, hopefully reducing their exposure to a widespread malware attack linked to Russian government actors. The FBI has reportedly seized a server used to escalate the infection, making rebooting an effective way to disable it."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/technology/router-fbi-reboot-malware.html

Snopes:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/05/25/fbi-warns-routers-cyber-attack/
 
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#2
What if rebooting your router is exactly what's needed to initislize the virus that the so called "FBI" is claiming to protect you from?

Forgive my tin hat attitude, but I don't trust anything on the Internet, not even what I posted myself.
And that goes double for anything that starts out "Not a Hoax."

In spite if my skepticism, I appreciate your concern for fellow TB'ers.
 
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#3
Old Garage-Bander said:
What if rebooting your router is exactly what's needed to initislize the virus that the so called "FBI" is claiming to protect you from?

Forgive my tin hat attitude, but I don't trust anything on the Internet, not even what I posted myself.
And that goes double for anything that starts out "Not a Hoax."

In spite if my skeptiszm, I appreciate your concern for fellow TB'ers.
Click to expand...

That's like the internet version of not vaccinating your kids.
 
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#4
FBI seeks to thwart major cyberattack on Ukraine

On Wednesday, network technology company Cisco Systems and antivirus company Symantec warned that a half-million internet-connected routers had been compromised in a possible effort to lay the groundwork for a cyber-sabotage operation against targets in Ukraine.

Court documents simultaneously unsealed in Pittsburgh show the FBI has seized a key website communicating with the massive army of hijacked devices, disrupting what could have been — and might still be — an ambitious cyberattack by the Russian government-aligned hacking group widely known as Fancy Bear.

Cisco said in a research note that the malware affected devices geared for small and home offices from manufacturers including Netgear, TP-Link and Linksys and had the potential to disable "internet access for hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide or in a focused region."
 
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#5
48thStreetCustom said:
That's like the internet version of not vaccinating your kids.
Click to expand...
No, no it's not.
Trusting the Internet is not the same as trusting your kid's doctors.
The doctor has an actual interest in the personal health of the child.

Have you personally verified the information you quoted to be correct?
Or did you just read it and then post it here?

Again, I appreciate that you sound the warning.
However, it is up to everyone reading those links to do their own research and make their own decisions.

Ask yourself:
Would hackers who are bent on creating a major cyber-attack go to the trouble of putting up a virus so lame that the simple act of rebooting your router would get rid if it?
 
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#6
Old Garage-Bander said:
No, no it's not.
Trusting the Internet is not the same as trusting your kid's doctors.
The doctor has an actual interest in the personal health of the child.

Have you personally verified the information you quoted to be correct?
Or did you just read it and then post it here?

Again, I appreciate that you sound the warning.
However, it is up to everyone reading those links to do their own research and make their own decisions.
Click to expand...

Sorry man. I know you mean well, but I make it a point to never engage with conspiracy theorists on the internet. Have a nice day.
 
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#11
48thStreetCustom said:
Sorry man. I know you mean well, but I make it a point to never engage with conspiracy theorists on the internet. Have a nice day.
Click to expand...
Sure I understand. But for your consideration... Would a true conspirist advise people to do their own research and come to their own conclusions? I'll leave you be.
Have a good-n.
 
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#15
Mike N said:
If you read it on the internet, it must be true.
Click to expand...

I trust the manufacturer.
Mushroo said:
It's off by default, but if you've turned it on for whatever reason, be very careful. Change your password from the manufacturer's default, and lock it down to specific IP's.
Click to expand...

I have a separate modem and wifi router. Do I have to update the firmware on both?
 
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#19
48thStreetCustom said:
I trust the manufacturer.

I have a separate modem and wifi router. Do I have to update the firmware on both?
Click to expand...

Can't hurt. @OldDog52 's link has good info. The phrase that caught my eye is: "The initial infection vector for this malware is currently unknown." Someone at work mentioned it might have spread through GPS metadata tags on digital photos!
 
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#20
Mushroo said:
It's off by default, but if you've turned it on for whatever reason, be very careful. Change your password from the manufacturer's default, and lock it down to specific IP's.
Click to expand...
@Mushroo Thanks for bringing some common sense to this discussion.
I don't take advice lightly that I get from the Internet. Any more so than What I get from TV.
For instance, I saw on a local TV news program, a doctor from our local university medical center discussing a medical subject near and dear to me. I then did some further research on places like WebMD that confirmed what the doctor had said. I have an appointment this week with my specialists, who manages that part of my health for me. Not a TV or Internet doctor, but a well respected physician at another major medical center. I'll talk with him about what I've seen and heard and see where it goes from there. And if I walked into his office wearing a tin foil hat, he'd get the joke, because he knows that I don't just jump into something serious without doing the research.
 
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