Is your Internet connection completely safe? Do you know if your router has the right settings? If not, then security expert F-Secure has the right tool for you: Router Checker. This is a free, one-click process that will scan your router and check for any unusual settings like questionable DNS addresses and more.
Unfortunately, changing router settings is a rather popular tactic with hackers, as they can secretly redirect the victim's path away from legitimate websites and send them to cleverly-disguised malicious sites. These websites can be identical to the legitimate ones and serve up malware dressed as clean, trustworthy applications.
Further, these sites can trick visitors into giving personal information, or install "scareware" that pushes visitors into purchasing fake software. According to F-Secure, over 300,000 office or home routers had altered settings in 2014. Even more, these routers played host to desktops, laptops, mobile devices and other Internet-connected devices.
"People will suddenly see more ads, or they'll be misdirected to a dangerous website that looks and feels safe," said F-Secure Security Advisor Sean Sullivan. "This makes diagnosing these problems important, and Router Checker is all about making the diagnosis accessible and easy so that people don't have to worry."
Sullivan said that a router with "unhealthy" settings can typically be fixed by resetting it to factory defaults or by updating the firmware. However, if the router remains unchecked, the end user could face serious problems such as identity theft, scareware, hacked accounts and so on. Taking F-Secure's one-click plunge to prevent all of those scenarios should only take a couple of seconds.
In addition to the one-click test, the Router Checker page provides information about what DNS hijackers and DNS Servers are. There's also a "Why Protect Yourself" section that explains the need to scan the router for suspicious settings. Click "Details" after the scan, and you'll see the details of your connection.
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