ACI Router Vulnerability Study - Your Data Is Not Safe - Financial Transactions Are Insecure

American Consumer Institute has just released a study (http://www.theamericanconsumer.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FINAL-Wi-Fi-Router-Vulnerabilities.pdf) showing that the vast majority of routers in common use today have serious security flaws that would allow hackers to steal your data and, if you bank or invest online, your money. The report's summary follows:

The FBI’s warning that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers highlighted the potential danger of open source routers, but the warning may have gone largely unnoticed by most consumers. In addition, as this ConsumerGram shows, Wi-Fi router manufacturers are neglecting to update their firmware for known vulnerabilities, and the problem is likely more pervasive for other IoT devices. When these security lapses occur, firmware can be fairly easily exploited by hackers with nefarious intentions.

 

The results of this study suggest that the most popular Wi-Fi routers in peoples’ homes are inadequately updated for security, leaving IoT devices open to attacks with potentially disastrous results. Simply resetting your router is not enough. Keeping firmware patched for known online threats may be an expense for manufacturers, but not doing so leaves consumers to collectively bear the burden of potentially much higher costs from cybercrime.

 

Each of the 32,003 vulnerabilities identified in this report put consumers, our infrastructure, and our economy at risk. If this growing threat is to be countered effectively, manufacturers must commit more resources to identify and mitigate open source vulnerabilities on their devices and consumers must remain vigilant for potential threats that could compromise their personal data. With the IoT market expanding quickly for both residential and industrial applications, the need to secure firmware cannot be overstated.

I would like to know what ATT is doing to protect our home wireless networks from threats like those listed in the ACI report. Is there anything I, as consumer, can do to help protect my data and my savings?