GoKawiilThe April 7 advisory from the FBI and NSA carried a message most home router owners probably didn't expect to find directed at them: Your device may have been part of a Russian military intelligence operation. The GRU unit known as APT28 -- also known as Fancy Bear and Forest Blizzard -- spent at least two years compromising home and small office routers across 23 US states, using the access to intercept communications and mask broader cyberattack activity. Federal agents remotely reset thousands of affected devices. The five-step fix that keeps them secure from here is yours to complete.
The attack targeted small-office/home-office routers, also known as SOHO routers, and was carried out by a unit in the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. Government agencies are urging people to follow basic router hygiene steps, such as updating to the latest firmware and changing default login credentials. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre includes a number of TP-Link routers specifically targeted by the hackers.
While that news sounds pretty alarming, it's worth keeping in mind that the attack compromised enterprise routers specifically, so your home Wi-Fi router likely isn't at risk. That said, some of the affected routers can be used as standard home routers, so it's worth checking whether your model was exploited in the attack.
Locating local internet providers
"There is a big trend of exploiting routers these days, and that goes both for the consumer and enterprise or corporate routers," Daniel Dos Santos, vice president of research at the cybersecurity company Forescout, told CNET.
What type of attack is this?
A news release from the NSA notes that the attack indiscriminately targeted a wide pool of routers, with the goal of gathering information on "military, government and critical infrastructure."
Locating local internet providers
This attack is linked to threat actors within the Russian GRU -- which go by APT28, Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard and other names -- and has been ongoing since at least 2024, according to the FBI.
It's known as a Domain Name System hijacking operation, in which DNS requests are intercepted by changing the default network configurations on SOHO routers, allowing the actors to see a user's traffic unencrypted.
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