Rumors floating around the computer security world the last few days have been verified. Researchers have found a way to bypass the security used on most wireless routers, laptops and cell phones.
The flaw is in the WiFi standard itself and not with any make or brand of routers. So it may take some time before a wide release of a fix becomes available.
A first look at what sort of attack may be used against this flaw seems to indicate that an attacker would have to be in range of a WiFi device. So while still serious, it would limit attacks to hackers within a few hundred feet of your router.
For now I am sure that the WiFi standard will be worked on as well as a rush by manufactures to implement patches. As this flaw has just been found there are only a few things an end user may do at this point…
- Update your security patches for routers and other WiFi devices.
- Limit your public WiFi use until patches are released (AND INSTALLED).
- Make sure the websites you’re using are secure by logging onto only secure sites that use the HTTPS protocol. If you do not know how to do this then install a plugin for your browser such as HTTP Everywhere that will make sure your connected securely.
UPDATE: 1:16 PM 10/16/2017
It seems Microsoft had a heads up with this problem and has some fixes. You can choose just to do a regular update to get your computer patched or go here and download for your “flavor” of Windows.
https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2017-13080