Desktop Security War Lost - The New Battle For Your Home Network
Desktop Security War Is Lost While The Home Network Security War Heats Up
Desktop security is a subject that sometimes seems to take a back seat to the usual news about website, blog, and server hacking. But it’s a well worn topic for big financial business and security experts and analysts. And for very good reason.
This past week Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of WhiteHat Security, wrote that many organizations within the financial services industry are at the point now where the operating assumption is that customer desktop’s are compromised.
That is the basic assumption.
Related to that ugly and depressing scenario is the nearby battle waging over the security of home networks. Nefarious botnets are being unleashed on home routers and DSL modems.
What that means is even if your PC has been pronounced squeaky clean, you need not surf another infected site, or receive another piece of malware laden spam to still lose control over your home system. From the DNS, routers, and modems you’re wide open and fair game.
What’s worse, at this moment there are few defensive security measures in place to protect your home networks - or to even detect if they have become compromised.
Enter Chuck Norris , the botnet.
This botnet was first discovered, and named, by Czech researchers. The method of unwanted entry is attacking poorly configured DSL modems and routers. One thing you can do, and it’s not a lot and may be too late, is to change the default password on your home router.
The Chuck Norris botnet only targets vulnerable routers and DSL modems. It will guess default admin passwords, and the situation is inadvertantly encouraged because many of these devices are configured for remote access.
After doing the preliminary guesswork, the botnet will install itself.
The network botnet mission is to gain control of outbound internet traffic which can be used for a number of purposes. This is a very effective strategy for hackers and allows for control over large numbers of systems while eliminating the need for constant intrusion and reinfection.
Little is actually widely known about how to fix compromised network devices. The final shot to the gut is that cable companies and ISP’s basically don’t care about your home network maladies.
That’s your territory, and your problem.
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