A survey by Broadband Genie shows that many routers may be at risk to hackers and virus because users don’t know how to update and manage security.
Router Maintenance
The survey that asked 2,205 people over 18 years of age whether the had performed any simple maintenance tasks such as changing the default password, or updating the firmware on their router found some shock results.
86% had never updated the firmware on their router, this is important as updates often include fixes for the spate of WiFi security issues that have shown up recently.
82% have never changed their administrator password, which are often set to a default for all routers of that brand.
More significantly 51% have never performed any of the tasks to help secure their home network.
Reasons
The reasons given for not performing the tasks, show a fundamental lack of understanding from most users about what should be done and why.
Almost half said they did no know why they needed to perform any of these tasks. Another 40% didn’t know how or could not find clear instructions.
Malaysia
In Malaysia we have an even worse situation, in that often the telcos add their own invisible accounts to routers to make their life easier when get support phone calls, the old, but still in use. white and orange D-Link routers supplied by Telekom Malaysia have a Management and operator user, both of which have default passwords, making it possible for your router to be hacked simply by visiting a web page which has some malicious JavaScript embedded in the page.
For peace of mind, and often for a more stable connection, I strongly suggest buying your own router particularly ones that make the update process straightforward.
