Wireless routers are an ideal target for cyber criminals. If the attackers gain control of a router, they can monitor, redirect, block or otherwise tamper with a wide range of online activities. Lately, researchers have found that most of the present Wi-Fi routers in the market come with various kinds of flaws that can reveal password!
Researchers have found that there are many home Wi-Fi routers that rely on “dumb” computer chips. Such routers could actually be the doorway for hackers to steal the password of the router at the first attempt, no less. According to Swiss security researcher Dominique Bongard, majority of the routers’ computer chips rely on a “random number generator” that is meant to safeguard the password of the router, but unfortunately, those numbers that churned out does not seem to be as “random” as intended.
Apart from this, it’s been found that some of these “random” numbers have been programmed in such a manner that it does not take too much for a hacker to determine the next numbers which the router will use. Stealing the password of your Wi-Fi router is as easy as knowing what the next number in the chain would be, although the hacker would first need to figure out the router model that you are currently using. Once your router gives up its passcode, it’s just a matter of time to hook up to your network and steal the data that gets sent between connected devices and the router itself.
Although, this weakness will only affect home routers which rely on the WPS security standard, at the same time it appears that the Wi-Fi routers are “not meant to protect your network and your digital assets”.
Source: Money.cnn
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