They discover a bug that is taking down routers in Latin America

during his presentation DefconOne of the oldest hacker conferences in the region, Federico Kirschbaum, co-founder and CEO of an Argentinian company. cyber security, Faraday announced that his team had found a A security flaw in some of the best-selling routers in Latin America, which would allow them to be added to criminal networks.

This flaw, which affects routers with Realtek components, allows a cybercriminal to remotely access the device and make it part of criminal networks or botnets.

According to cybersecurity company Avast, this set of devices can be used to send spam messages, spread or launch viruses. cyber attacks companies.

Realtek, the company involved in this failure, was informed last March of the seriousness of the discovery, classified as high severitySo you have time to develop a security patch that fixes this flaw before it’s publicly announced at DefCon.

However, the real meaning of the statement made at the conference is that the public is aware not only of the seriousness of the mistake, but also of the need for renewal. devices Realtek which they have in their homes or offices to avoid the influence of cybercriminals.

An update that fixes this vulnerability It’s already available to users, but it’s important to confirm that devices have downloaded and installed it.

In addition, the problem has regional dimensions due to the fact that there are a large number of routers that suffer from this failure, such as D-Link, Nexxt, Nisuta, Tenda and Zyxel.

If these devices are not installed UpdateThey will not be protected from this security flaw and will be manipulated remotely Cyber ​​criminals.

Another option that can help you protect the security of the router used at home or at the workplace is a Change the device Well, since victims are used throughout the region, it is difficult to ensure that the security of the current one is not compromised.

Routers are the most vulnerable

In turn, cyber security company Kaspersky indicated that by 2021, they have identified 87 Vulnerability In routers or routers.

In addition, they indicated that a third Device providers There was no response in this regard, and only 26% gave some warning to consumers, but without delving further into the problem.

Adding to the situation, the Router Security Survey 2022 indicates that 73% of respondents have never considered upgrading or installing. Security measures on your router, making it the device with the highest exposure to cyber threats.

In this regard, the antivirus company also ensures that consumers and small businesses do not have the necessary resources or knowledge Threat detection in time before it destroys the network and equipment.

According to the analysis conducted by the subject, St Cyber ​​protectionSince 2010, threats via routers have been on the rise, reaching a peak in 2020 with 603 possible registered cyberattacks.

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