The recent “Urgent Request” by the FBI to the general population of the United States to reboot routers has been making the news rounds lately.

The routers and other managed network equipment supported by IFLS and WVLS on the LEAN WI network are not affected by this particular vulnerability. We will continue monitoring this issue and take all appropriate measures to ensure the security of our manged equipment and the network.
The PSA from the FBI is a bit trim on the details, recommending that

“… any owner of small office and home office routers reboot the devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices. Owners are advised to consider disabling remote management settings on devices and secure with strong passwords and encryption when enabled. Network devices should be upgraded to the latest available versions of firmware. “

A piece by ars Technica zooms our view in a bit, covering some of this issue’s still-brief timeline and listing known router manufacturers affected.
​​They also reference the moderately more informative Alert from the Dept. of Homeland Security.
This is a very real issue, and the PSA\Alert\plea for the general public to reboot their home and small office routers should not be trivialized.  If your patrons ask you about this, the easiest and most effective answer is to follow the FBI’s very simple recommendation.  Turn it off and back on again.
For those who desire more of the nitty gritty.  The links above are a good starting point, and this blog post by Talos should cover the rest.

References:

 

Submitted by Joshua Klingbeil