Most of the people in the UK don’t even care about the routers they are using for internet, and the outdated routers are not regularly upgraded and have flaws that can put the users in big trouble like these users can fall prey to the hackers, according to the latest research made by consumer watch WhichCo. The security researchers after they made a survey of more than six thousand adults, they pointed out that 13 old routers that are still getting used by the consumer all over the country and these routers were sent to the security experts from the technology consultancy Red Maple Technologies, and it was found that 9 out of 13 routers did not even meet the latest security standards and this can put the users in trouble such as getting hacked.
The outdated routers give a chance to the hackers to spy on people about their activities on the internet browsers and they can also send them malicious and spam websites, and the researchers said that almost 7.5 million users only in the UK are affected by this flaw. Some users have not upgraded their routers from 2018 and some of them have not even upgraded their routers from 2016 and they are using it without even care what can happen next to their privacy and these routers include the models (Super Hub 2, Media Super Hub, Sky’s SR101 and SR102, Talk Talk’s HG523a and HG533). Most of the broadband provides when they were asked by 'Which', said that they regularly monitor the routers and if think that specific routers need the up-gradation because of the security flaw, they upgrade the specific device. The researchers also found out that one local flaw with EE’s Brightbox 2, which can even give the hacker full regulator on all your activities and your device.
The spokesperson of EE said that our company takes the security threats very seriously and this is a very minor risk of getting hacked for those users using EE Brightbox 2 and our company will try to upgrade the EE Brightbox 2 as needed. BT group own EE told that the outdated devices have recently been upgraded and so did routers from Plusnet. The security researchers have suggested to those users having the outdated device to ask their broadband providers to give them the latest router that does not have a flaw. Virgin Media says that it offers free up-gradation to the users having older devices.
There is also one weakness in the older routers is that their password is outdated that that help the hackers to get access to the activities of the users, the security researchers also gave the advice to change the password to the stronger one and conflicting to the default password provided by the company. The organization is trying to pursue the government to put a ban on the default password set by internet providers. The department of the UK for Digital, Culture, Sport, and Media has made new legislation to ban the default password set by the internet providers to secure the privacy of the users. The upcoming laws will also make it compulsory to guide the users about how long their products will receive the update for and WhichCo wants internet providers to make their policy more transparent.
Read next: Google Will Push More Users To Enable Two-Factor Authentication To Keep Their Accounts More Secure
The outdated routers give a chance to the hackers to spy on people about their activities on the internet browsers and they can also send them malicious and spam websites, and the researchers said that almost 7.5 million users only in the UK are affected by this flaw. Some users have not upgraded their routers from 2018 and some of them have not even upgraded their routers from 2016 and they are using it without even care what can happen next to their privacy and these routers include the models (Super Hub 2, Media Super Hub, Sky’s SR101 and SR102, Talk Talk’s HG523a and HG533). Most of the broadband provides when they were asked by 'Which', said that they regularly monitor the routers and if think that specific routers need the up-gradation because of the security flaw, they upgrade the specific device. The researchers also found out that one local flaw with EE’s Brightbox 2, which can even give the hacker full regulator on all your activities and your device.
The spokesperson of EE said that our company takes the security threats very seriously and this is a very minor risk of getting hacked for those users using EE Brightbox 2 and our company will try to upgrade the EE Brightbox 2 as needed. BT group own EE told that the outdated devices have recently been upgraded and so did routers from Plusnet. The security researchers have suggested to those users having the outdated device to ask their broadband providers to give them the latest router that does not have a flaw. Virgin Media says that it offers free up-gradation to the users having older devices.
There is also one weakness in the older routers is that their password is outdated that that help the hackers to get access to the activities of the users, the security researchers also gave the advice to change the password to the stronger one and conflicting to the default password provided by the company. The organization is trying to pursue the government to put a ban on the default password set by internet providers. The department of the UK for Digital, Culture, Sport, and Media has made new legislation to ban the default password set by the internet providers to secure the privacy of the users. The upcoming laws will also make it compulsory to guide the users about how long their products will receive the update for and WhichCo wants internet providers to make their policy more transparent.
Read next: Google Will Push More Users To Enable Two-Factor Authentication To Keep Their Accounts More Secure
