Hey, there!
As part of the Science category of what we teach in the VO2GoGo curriculum, I want you to be use best practices when using technology – and that means being aware of and keeping yourself protected from attempts to compromise your system.
Today, I want you to know about and test your system to see if you’re subject to a particularly nasty security hole in your home internet system’s router. And it couldn’t be more simple to do – no tech savviness needed at all. Here’s the skinny – and I’d do it NOW.
I use a product called Wordfence to protect the VO2GoGo.com site, and all my other sites. Their security plugin works tirelessly to keep me and all of your information safe. But the company that created Wordfence does more than just write software; they also research and publish information about potential threats before they become widespread. And, more importantly, if they can, they show you how to test to see if you’re vulnerable to those threats.
Recently, Wordfence published an article that described how hackers are using automated software “bots” to test whether or not routers around the internet are leaving a particular port (7547 to be exact) open. A port is a doorway into and out of your router that internet traffic of various types can flow through, and there are about 65,000 ports in every router, including yours.
If this particular port is open, and your router is older and has a particular type of software installed, hackers can see this and exploit that vulnerability. If they do, they can take over your router without you knowing it, steal your data, and use your router to launch attacks on other routers around the internet.
That is bad.
But – you can test it, without having any tech knowledge at all, and fix it if need be by contacting your ISP. Just visit their article, and use the SCAN ME button within the article itself. Here’s the link to the article:
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2017/04/check-your-router/
You don’t have to understand every little detail about how hackers can use that port to attack WordPress sites and other routers, just that you need to test it to make sure you’re not vulnerable to that attack.
Have you been made aware of any other threats? Were you vulnerable or safe with this one? Let me know in the comments below.
Hope this helps.
David
I was safe, thank goodness!
Thank you for this super-helpful article, David!!!
Safe. Phew! Thanks. Stuff like this is so important.
SAFE!
I just got all new equipment because I changed providers, so that probably did the trick, but I appreciate being able to check. Thank you, David!