Should You Reboot Your Router?

The FBI recently suggested that internet users reboot their routers. This, they said, was because “foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide.”

This is a pretty scary thought. Indeed, the Justice Department recently released information about a belief that the Russian hackers installed malware called VPNFilter on over half a million routers. While there’s no way to tell for sure if your router has been affected, these attacks have only affected several router brands: Asus, D-Link, Huawei, Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, Upvel, and ZTE, and QNAP network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Visit this page for information about specific models that may have been affected.

Rebooting your router will not harm anything, but it may not rid the device of the malware. Instead, resetting your router to factory settings will more effectively clean your device. This will require reconfiguring your network settings, which can be tedious. Therefore, you may only want to reset your router if it is on the list of affected devices.

Adapted from CNet.