Category Archives: Security
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Beyond Three Dumb Routers
Posted on June 20, 2018 by pcwrt in Router, Security, Technology.To mitigate the risks of IoT devices on your home network, Steve Gibson, the creator of ShieldsUP!, proposed a “Three Dumb Router” configuration to isolate the insecure IoT devices from your normal LAN, where the more valuable and more secure devices such as PCs and NAS storage reside. Since the devices stay in their own […]
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How to get rid of VPNFilter malware (even though you don’t know if your router is infected)
Posted on June 6, 2018 by pcwrt in Router, Security, Technology.Ars Technica reported today that the VPNFilter malware targets a much larger number of devices than previously thought (200,000 additional routers were added to the initial estimate of 500,000). And it is more powerful than revealed in original analysis. VPNFilter’s elaborate design involves three stages. Stage 1 acts as a backdoor that uses a sophisticated […]
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Can Alexa be used to spy?
Posted on June 5, 2018 by pcwrt in Security, Technology.On May 24, 2018, Portland, Oregon local TV station Kiro 7 reported that an Amazon Alexa device recorded a private conversation, then sent it out to a random contact. Amazon confirmed the incident, and attributed it to an “unlikely” string of events that caused Alexa to mistakingly interpret background sounds as commands. In other words, […]
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Put IoT devices on guest network
Posted on June 3, 2018 by pcwrt in Security, Technology.IoT devices are known to be vulnerable to cyber attacks. The best known instance of such an attack is probably the Mirai botnet. The botnet infected numerous IoT devices (such as home routers and IP security cameras) and used them to perform a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. It brought down major web sites […]
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Is it safe to use free, public WiFi?
Posted on June 2, 2018 by pcwrt in Security, Technology, WiFi.Free public WiFi hotspots are available in most public places, such as the airports, McDonald’s, Starbucks, or your local public library. A lot of security experts or self-claimed experts warn you against connecting to these WiFi networks. They warn you that some bad guy may be operating the WiFi hotspot, in that case they can […]
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4 Tests You Should Do on Your WiFi Router to Avoid Hacking
Posted on January 19, 2018 by pcwrt in Router, Security, WiFi.In a previous post, I talked about how to secure your router WiFi. That’s only half of the puzzle. Another type of attack on your router comes directly from the Internet, without the need to connect to your WiFi signal. Due to the various security flaws on the home WiFi router, and the fact that […]
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Five WiFi security settings and their effectiveness in securing your WiFi network
Posted on November 13, 2017 by pcwrt in Router, Security, WiFi.Technologies change fast, what was once considered safe and secure may become vulnerable and obsolete by today’s standards. Here I’ll show five wireless security settings generally available on a WiFi router, and their effectiveness in securing your WiFi network. Disable SSID broadcast. It is often recommended that you should disable SSID broadcasting to make your […]
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Is equifaxsecurity2017.com legit?
Posted on September 9, 2017 by pcwrt in News, Security.Big news that Equifax leaked personal info of 143 million Americans. In the wake of the news, people were directed to check their status at the website www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. The domain name sounded fishy, in the same sense as someone claiming that ebay-security-alerts.com is an official Ebay site. So a lot of people are asking whether […]
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