Is your router rooted?

Have you ever thought about the security of your routers? Or do you assume that, because you have written a good router configuration in line with best practice, it's secure? Such complacency could cost you dear.

Malware and viruses are popping up in all sorts of places; even old techniques such as master boot record viruses are back in fashion.

Networking equipment vendors are increasingly moving their production to Far Eastern markets. Some of these locations are known to be less than friendly to Western powers, and there is evidence that hackers in these countries are indeed attacking Western government and commerce.

So, if the vendor is now manufacturing routers in the Far East, it would not be difficult for an insider to install or write malware into the firmware of these devices during the manufacturing process; firmware that could be altered to create a backdoor.

Is this trivial speculation? Well, there is already evidence of interference in these IT production processes. You may have seen reports over the Christmas period of online shoppers purchasing peripherals such as USB sticks, MP3 players and digital photo frames, all infected with malware.

Given that consumer-targeted products are being infected at point of manufacture, it's likely that higher-end network components such as switches, routers and firewalls can or will be compromised.