NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0376 Simulated Virus Attack on WiFi Routers:
The first simulation of an "airborne" computer virus
stymied the San Francisco Bay area, but failed to cross Boston's Charles
River from MIT to infect Harvard University. The simulated viral infection, the
first of its kind, spread by hopping between wireless routers. A computer
scientist at Indiana University, Bloomington cautioned, "We forget that
routers are mini- computers. They have memory, they are networked and they are
programmable." Routers close enough together to communicate - less than
300 feet apart - could act as a vast network for viruses. And since they
aren't scanned for viruses, or protected by existing firewalls, they are
easy targets. Although no actual router viruses are known to exist, the
computer scientist says such a virus could steal credit-card numbers, make the
router send out spam and block incoming security patches.
(NewScientist 22DEC07)