According to the study, routers have major security deficiencies

Berlin. A study by a Fraunhofer institute has found security deficiencies in Internet routers for private users. The gaps ranged from missing security updates and easy-to-decipher passwords to well-known vulnerabilities that should have been fixed long ago.

Study: None of the devices examined were without errors

Not a single router among the 127 devices examined was without errors, according to the examination of the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE). Some are even affected by hundreds of well-known vulnerabilities. In the past twelve months, 46 routers have not received a single security update, one for 2000 days.

Most of the time (90 percent) the free operating system Linux is used on the routers, but often in very old versions. Linux is known for the fact that security gaps are quickly closed, the researchers emphasize. The manufacturers would only have to quickly install the current software – which, however, usually does not happen.

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