MacDirectory Magazine

MacDirectory 115 FEATURE There are some items of technology in our lives that are so standard and ubiquitous because of how fundamental they are to the way things work that it's very easy to take them for granted. Because we don't pay a second thought to these things, we also quickly get stuck in security pitfalls and fall for traps that play on the fact that we don't know or think very much about them. For example, have you ever really thought much about your router? With so many connected devices in our homes, offices, and pockets today, it's entirely possible you aren't even sure what it is that a router does. Maybe all you know is that it's the thing that lets you get on the Internet at home or use the Wi-Fi at Starbucks! Today, we'll be covering a few of the necessary things you should know about routers, plus some of the biggest and most serious threats out there that can impact this fundamental technology. On our list for this week: • What does a router do, exactly? • What's going on with the Russians? • What can you do to protect your system? • Basic tips for choosing routers What precisely does a router do? Think of how many Internet- connected devices you have in your home. If you're in a bigger family, there could be three or four computers, not to mention smart devices such as phones and tablets that you might have. Even though you have all these devices, chances are good you only have one Internet connection available at home, usually in the form of a cable or a DSL modem supplied by your Internet service provider. Have you ever wondered how it is that you can use all these devices on the Internet at the same time without ever encountering a mix-up? How can just one modem handle all that traffic at once? After all, there are tons of simultaneous requests flowing from your machines to the model, and it needs to make sure that all the data ends up in the right place. At the root of things, that's what a router does: it can handle substantial amounts of network traffic going to and from multiple locations while keeping it all in order. By coordinating all this information between your devices and the modem, routers enable efficient, seamless sharing of a single connection. Consider an example: you're surfing the web on your MacBook, and you decide you want to visit Apple.com. At the same time, your roommate in another part of the house chooses to visit Microsoft. com. As this happens, the router receives the requests, sends them to the modem, and gets the reply — that is, the data for the web pages. It then makes sure that each of your computers loads the correct site by sending the data packets to the right destination. So, what if you're saying to yourself, "Wait a minute — I don't have a router. I've only got my modem. What gives?" While standalone routers were almost a necessity ten or fifteen years ago, these days many modern modems supplied by ISPs come with a router built right in to the same hardware. This saves space and offers better efficiency, whereas some of the older standalone models could prove tricky for end users to operate. However, you could still have more than one router in your home, even if you don't think of it as such. For example, do you struggle with providing adequate Wi-Fi coverage around your house? If you use range extenders or signal repeaters so you can keep surfing the web even when you're down in the basement, then you may be dealing with multiple routers already. Routers don't just handle traffic from the Internet, though. They're also highly useful for managing local network traffic, which can enable you to stream media from connected storage to your TV or share files. In the earlier days of PC gaming, routers were a necessity to make the iconic "LAN parties" a reality — all-night parties between friends lugging their computers to someone's house to play games together. Today, the advanced state of online play makes that much less common, but it's another excellent example of the versatility and importance of routers. OK, so that's what a router does — how could it pose a security threat? Since routers face the open Internet and handle sending your requests out, they can also act as a gateway into your network. That fact was at the center of a major recent cybersecurity announcement. What's going on with the Russians? What happened? On the 18th of April, the FBI, in conjunction with the US Department of Homeland Security and the United Kingdom's National Cybersecurity Centre, issued a major alert, warning that hacking groups with known ties to the Russian government were undertaking a wide-scale attack on many types of network devices. These hacks were sophisticated and complex and unfolded over time in a multi-stage process. In stage one, the hackers would look to identify open ports on vulnerable, Internet- accessible devices. As we discussed in a recent episode, almost anyone can scan for open vulnerabilities on the web, though it takes a fair amount of knowledge and understanding to exploit them fully. The Russian hackers were looking for open doors and broken windows they could use to attack the networks behind those ports. In stage two, the hackers would probe the networks and identify devices vulnerable to the types of attacks they used. After locating a targeted device, the hackers would send specially made network traffic to them, maliciously exploiting vulnerabilities and causing the devices to send back their configuration files. Within these config files were the first prize the hackers sought: sensitive information such as the hashed passwords for other network devices available through the open door. Stage

• 1
• 2-138