ALARMING

FBI: Reboot Your Routers or Risk Russian Malware Infection

A hacking group is believed to have already infected 500,000 routers globally.

The FBI is urging people to reboot their routers to avoid a Russian-linked malware infection that has already compromised hundreds of thousands of devices. As The Daily Beast reported last week, a hacking collective tied to Russian military intelligence called the Sofacy Group is believed to have infected 500,000 routers in 54 different countries with malware called VPNFilter. The malware can do anything from block web traffic to gather personal information and even disable the routers completely. While the FBI is already working to disrupt the hacking group’s work after seizing one of its main domains, cyber security experts warn the malware can still have far-reaching consequences. “The malware has a destructive capability that can render an infected device unusable, which can be triggered on individual victim machines or en masse, and has the potential of cutting off internet access for hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide,” Talos, the cyber threat intelligence arm of Cisco, warned in a statement.