Security PSA for crappy home networking.

[imwjl]

https://labs.bitdefender.com/2020/0....t-infostealer/

A good reason to consider your home networking setup. At minimum don't use default credentials. What the article means is your home router can be faking popular web sites you go to and you'll get an info stealer.

As an enterprise network manager I get asked what to choose and have noticed I'm not alone with other associates who like Ubiquiti over the common brands sold for home office. They make enterprise and home office stuff. Their "Amplifi" products will get you enterprise grade power and features made easy. You can tune the antennas unlike many systems, and they make it easy for a non-technical person.

In addition to security you might get what our home and others who've done this have. You find the crappy stuff you get for free or old is the bottleneck for home networking performance. With the antennas tuned (they make it easy) my Amplifi 3-pack covers 3 floors and most of my block in the neighborhood. You also get a VPN back home, band steering for older WiFi stuff, and QoS to tune devices for streaming vs gaming etc....

Most important is don't get spoofed or compromised.

[why2]

Link got a 404 error.

And I'm interested.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by imwjl

https://labs.bitdefender.com/2020/0....t-infostealer/

A good reason to consider your home networking setup. At minimum don't use default credentials. What the article means is your home router can be faking popular web sites you go to and you'll get an info stealer.

As an enterprise network manager I get asked what to choose and have noticed I'm not alone with other associates who like Ubiquiti over the common brands sold for home office. They make enterprise and home office stuff. Their "Amplifi" products will get you enterprise grade power and features made easy. You can tune the antennas unlike many systems, and they make it easy for a non-technical person.

In addition to security you might get what our home and others who've done this have. You find the crappy stuff you get for free or old is the bottleneck for home networking performance. With the antennas tuned (they make it easy) my Amplifi 3-pack covers 3 floors and most of my block in the neighborhood. You also get a VPN back home, band steering for older WiFi stuff, and QoS to tune devices for streaming vs gaming etc....

Most important is don't get spoofed or compromised.

I'm getting a 404 on that page.

Just some feedback, I work in tech albeit as a UX designer, but this went a bit over my head. What are "default credentials" on one's router? Not setting up a new name and password for your local network? How would my router be faking popular web sites? Because someone hacked into it and is re-routing URL's? I wonder if a couple examples would help make this more clear. Thanks!

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

I'm getting a 404 on that page.

Just some feedback, I work in tech albeit as a UX designer, but this went a bit over my head. What are "default credentials" on one's router? Not setting up a new name and password for your local network? How would my router be faking popular web sites? Because someone hacked into it and is re-routing URL's? I wonder if a couple examples would help make this more clear. Thanks!

Sorry, I go here in little snips between work tasks.

I see it's in this site too. I follow the bitdefenter news because I use it on Macs at home, and it's an engine Cisco AMP uses.

Default credentials are the user and password a device comes with. Long-running there's been issues where home routers have been compromised. By feeding you malicious DNS they compromise you. You type a site name and it returns a faked or malicious version of the site.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...-push-malware/

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by imwjl

Sorry, I go here in little snips between work tasks.

I see it's in this site too. I follow the bitdefenter news because I use it on Macs at home, and it's an engine Cisco AMP uses.

Default credentials are the user and password a device comes with. Long-running there's been issues where home routers have been compromised. By feeding you malicious DNS they compromise you. You type a site name and it returns a faked or malicious version of the site.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...-push-malware/

Thanks for the clarification! Looks from the article that it's limited to certain router brands. Is that your experience?

[robj144]

Always change default everything when I get it. I also change the DNS to Google DNS too. That DNS seems to be faster as well.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Thanks for the clarification! Looks from the article that it's limited to certain router brands. Is that your experience?

It looks that way. Being an enterprise provider is another reason some of my associates and I like Ubiquiti. That said, Ubiquiti Amplifi SOHO vs Ubiquiti enterprise gear is not as granular with release notes and detailed config options.

The ultimate home setup would be get a small Meraki (Cisco) MX but that's annual licensing and strong feature set way beyond what most do in their homes. With optional licensing and complementary products you get virus protection before or inline and retrospective info and paths on malicious files you might have received in the past.

Cisco's OpenDNS aka Umbrella still has free for home user DNS protection product I choose over Google even though I'm an Alphabet stockholder. Cisco only wants to know your traffic to best protect you - not so for others.