Make your router secure right now

If you weren't worried enough about the security of your home computer and network, it may be time to step it up.

A new study by Indiana University and Symantec has discovered (and, alas, made more public) a new hacking technique called "drive-by pharming." Of course, we can't use a name actually in the dictionary, but the gist of it is that your home router may be insecure.

First, keep in mind that a good percentage of home computers (and some business PCs) are wide open and already infected with "bot" software that turns them into zombies that spew out those millions of spam e-mails a day. So the first order of business for your computer has to be to clean and secure your PC. That means anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-adware software needs to be front and center.

Simultaneous to that you also need to be concerned about this "pharming" thing. In normal pharming, users are redirected from normal Web sites to bogus sites that contain malicious software code that infects or harms your PC.

In this new twist, an attacker is able to remotely change the domain name settings on the user's broadband router or even a wireless access point and reroute requests for legitimate sites to bogus sites designed to steal login information. That could be financially devastating if the sites were banking or investment sites or even PayPal.

How do you stop the attack? Change the default password on your router.

"This new research exposes a problem affecting millions of broadband users worldwide," said Oliver Friedrichs, director of Symantec Security Response. "Because of the ease by which drive-by pharming attacks can be launched, it is vital that consumers adequately protect their broadband routers and wireless access points today."

By "today" they really mean today. As this attack becomes better known it will become more frequent. This is especially true when it comes to children or computer users who don't necessarily pay much attention to what they click on.

So let's talk about the steps you need to take, today.

Make sure you have a current anti-virus product installed. If you don't have one (or the one you have is expired) get the free version 7.5 of AVG at free.grisoft.com.

Download Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware SE Personal from www.filehippo.com (after you click on the link, the download is in the upper right corner in green).