Cybercrooks are increasingly targeting routers in consumers’ homes.

Fortinet reports that attacks of this type have regularly figured as entries in its daily top 10 IPS (intrusion prevention system) detection list over the last three months since July. The security vendor reckons that home routers have become a favoured target for cybercriminals.

Hackers are hunting for known but unpatched flaws in Netcore, D-Link and Asus devices, in particular. Hacking into routers allows miscreants to break into the networks and devices behind them. Vulnerable routers were also among the components of the Mirai botnet, which became the springboard for massive DDoS attacks against the cybercrime blogger Brian Krebs and others in late August.

Fortinet’s warning is backed up by Krebs, who said that IoT devices such as routers, IP cameras and digital video recorders are becoming proxies for cybercrime.

Separately, security software firm ESET warned today that in a test of more than 12,000 home routers, 15 per cent (a little over one in seven) use weak passwords, with “admin” left as the username in most cases. One in 14 (7 per cent) of the routers tested demonstrated software vulnerabilities of high or medium severity. ®