South San Francisco, CA Maye 31, 2018 by FBI
Summary
The FBI recommends any owner of small office and home office routers power cycle (reboot) the devices. Foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide. The actors used VPNFilter malware to target small office and home office routers. The malware is able to perform multiple functions, including possible information collection, device exploitation, and blocking network traffic.
Technical Details
The size and scope of the infrastructure impacted by VPNFilter malware is significant. The malware targets routers produced by several manufacturers and network-attached storage devices by at least one manufacturer. The initial infection vector for this malware is currently unknown.
Threat
VPNFilter is able to render small office and home office routers inoperable. The malware can potentially also collect information passing through the router. Detection and analysis of the malware’s network activity is complicated by its use of encryption and misattributable networks.
Defense
The FBI recommends any owner of small office and home office routers reboot the devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices. Owners are advised to consider disabling remote management settings on devices and secure with strong passwords and encryption when enabled. Network devices should be upgraded to the latest available versions of firmware.
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Filing a Complaint with the IC3
The IC3 accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the actual victim or from a third party to the complainant. We can best process your complaint if we receive accurate and complete information from you. Therefore, we request you provide the following information when filing a complaint:
- Victim’s name, address, telephone, and email
- Financial transaction information (e.g., account information, transaction date and amount, who received the money)
- Subject’s name, address, telephone, email, website, and IP address
- Specific details on how you were victimized
- Email header(s)
- Any other relevant information you believe is necessary to support your complaint
YIKES ! It is bad enough that the Russians are trolling the nation. I saw one gathering signatures for a petition. People beware the Russians are no longer coming, they are here!
I read this earlier and found that my ASUS router was not included.