Friday, February 16, 2007

Do you have a wireless connection in your home? If so, and you haven't changed your default password and login settings on your router, you are vulnerable to an attack by phishers who could redirect you from web sites you want to visit to web sites that steal your data, according to this article at CNET. The attack works by subverting the domain name system (DNS) settings of a router. The article explains that
This DNS change lets the attacker divert all the Net traffic going through the router. For example, if the victim types in "www.mybank.com," the request could be sent to a similar-looking fake page created to steal sensitive data.

Happily, there's an easy fix for the problem...change your default settings, something that should be standard practice anyway.

More information on this vulnerability in common wireless routers, as well as recently discovered flaws in Microsoft Word and Apple's Finder and iChat features can be found here.

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