A recent survey of 2,205 users proved once again that most people don't update their router firmware, don't change default credentials, and generally don't know how to secure their devices.
Over the past two to three years, there has been a flood of articles, news stories, and research papers detailing the large botnets that have been created, exploiting various router vulnerabilities or by compromising devices with default credentials. Essentially, these are the two main methods used by attackers.
According to Broadband Genie, only 14% of respondents have updated their router firmware and only 18% have changed the default password. This means that about five in six routers are never updated with new firmware and four in five devices are running with factory credentials, making them potential targets for modern botnets.
Botnets are known to massively scan the internet with the aim of identifying and then infecting new devices, in the absence of traffic filtering by the provider, thus consuming all the resources of the connection and the equipment.
Continuing, the survey also showed that only 31% of users have changed their WiFi network password (which is different from the router's administrator password) and only 30% have checked the router's admin panel to see what other devices are connected to it.
The survey closes by giving the percentages based on the answers-excuses given by users, explaining the reasons for not making these changes.
34% of respondents said they were unsure how to perform any of these functions, 6% said they could not find clear instructions on how to make these changes, 3% said the software was complex, while 48% said they did not know why they should make these changes (Firmware update, Wifi password change, etc.).
