A Wi-Fi router broadcasts a wireless signal to connect your computer and/or network to the Internet (often via a modem). While routers typically do the job of connecting you to the Web effectively, they are also vulnerable to a number of different attacks if they aren’t set up (aka ‘configured’) properly. Recent studies have noted that many popular routers can be hacked fairly easily. In addition to stealing your business, financial and personal data – and then your identity to empty your bank accounts – a network interloper can also infect your system with malware to force your computer into a botnet or ‘piggyback’ on your wireless signal to use the Internet and download whatever they wish. While using your wireless signal may not sound all that threatening, significant downloading can slow down your whole system. Also, consider the 2011 case in which an upstate NY man was subject to a violent late night police raid on his home and arrest after a neighbor used his unprotected network to download child pornography.
In case you’re wondering how your router would even get noticed amid all of the wireless network traffic out there, potential hackers use methods like wardriving to find vulnerable routers and networks that they can exploit. All of this begs the question: what can you do to better secure your router and protect your home or office computer (and network)?
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