Wait, what is the CIA doing with my home router?
According to documents released by WikiLeaks, home routers from 10 major manufacturers including Linksys, DLink and Belkin can be turned into covert listening posts that allow the CIA to monitor and control your internet traffic
The CherryBlossom implant, as it is code-named, is of note because the D-Link DIR-130 and Linksys WRT300N are some of the highest selling models of all time and are still widely in use.
do you have one of these routers? – click here for a list of vulnerable routers
What does this ‘CherryBlossom’ implant do to my router?
The 175-page CherryBlossom user guide released by WikiLeaks describes a Linux-based operating system that turns your router into a “FlyTrap”.
Once infected, your router connects to a “CherryTree.” Once a part of the CIA network, your device can be used in nearly any means they see fit; and yes, that monitoring and utilization of your internet traffic counts against your bandwidth
How does it remain hidden and how can I tell if they’ve got control of my router?
All the communications between the FlyTrap and the CIA-controlled CherryTree, with the exception of data copying, is encrypted and for extra measure, masquerades as HTTP (basic internet) traffic. Meaning it is very hard to detect as it pretends it’s plain old web traffic.
Should I be worried?
If you don’t mind that there is a wildly known vulnerability in your router and also don’t mind having your traffic monitored (or just plain think it’s impossible to be protected) than than you might as well leave what you have in place.
If you want a more secure option, one that isn’t known to be hacked yet, than you get a enterprise grade option like Sonicwall or Meraki. Once in place, apply best practices like secure passwords, upgrading of the firmware, limit the kind of traffic is allowed in and consider using VPNs to encrypt your traffic.
The simple fact is that no matter what you do, the CIA will get your info if they really want to. The problem with this however, is that the CIA keeps getting hacked...
So, if you want to be able to encrypt your internet traffic and get some real protection than consider:
A) Use the Tor internet browser, which creates a VPN connection for ONLY your web browsing, click here to learn more about Tor
or
B) Get a dedicated VPN solution to encrypt and secure ALL your internet traffic, here are some reviews of the major options, http://www.ign.com/articles?tags=tech-vpn-review
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