ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — The U.S. Department of Justice warns that Russian botnets are attempting to infiltrate homes and businesses by attacking internet connections.

The DOJ says it’s happened twice in the last two months and many Americans are making themselves easy targets.

The latest attacks targeted Ubiquiti Edge routers. The cybercriminals get the default passwords off the internet. Any user who didn’t change the default password could have had their internet connection compromised.

Ubiquiti Edge routers are not as common as routers from Linksys, Netgear, and TP-link but many home and business owners who are tech-oriented favor them.

The report from the DOJ doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Ubiquiti routers. However, you should reset the default password that it came with.

That’s true for all internet and WiFi routers.

To change the password, open the router’s app or go online to your account.

Choose a new password that’d be hard to guess. It’s safer to write it down and hide it somewhere, like a book on the shelf. Many providers offer enhanced security to protect your network so contact your provider if you get stuck.

Every few months, turn off the router. Wait a few seconds and turn it back on. This will install any security updates.

Not only will that keep your network safer. However, it’ll probably run faster with better coverage.

The DOJ said because of the attack threats, they got a court order to remove the malware from over 1,000 home and business routers. The DOJ said they would contact those Internet users and ask them to perform a factory rest to install new security updates.

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