NSA and FBI warn of Russian hacking of consumer routers

The National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI, in coordination with the Department of Justice, have issued a warning regarding a widespread internet security breach involving consumer routers. The hacking operation is attributed to Unit 26165, a Russian military intelligence group specializing in cybersecurity.

In the United States, the NSA identified over 5,000 affected individual consumers and 200 companies or organizations. Globally, the breach impacted tens of thousands of routers across more than 100 countries. The attackers used compromised routers as footholds to intercept internet traffic and reroute it through fraudulent login pages designed to harvest credentials for services such as Microsoft Outlook. All intercepted data was funneled to Russian-controlled servers.

To mitigate risks, authorities recommend that users disable remote access to their routers, change passwords regularly, and replace hardware if security cannot be maintained.