Recently, there’s been a lot of news coverage regarding a new botnet called VPNFilter. This attack has resulted in a series of slightly panicked phone calls to our support team, so we’d like to calm your fears and dig into why you’re safe with ALLO.
First – what’s a botnet? It’s a network of private computers which have been infected with malware (also known as a virus) and are controlled by an external group without permission. The VPNFilter botnet virus runs on several different residential grade routers and NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. An estimated 500,000 devices are considered infected with this botnet.
New articles have encouraged readers to reboot their router immediately, and many customers have called in asking if they should do so too. The short answer is yes; you can always reboot your router, it’s a safe option no matter your concern. Need a refresher? To reboot your router, simply remove the power cord from the back of the box and leave it unplugged for about 30 seconds. Plug the power cord back into the router, and your service should restore after a few minutes.
The longer answer is that you technically don’t need to reboot your router to avoid this specific attack. We reached out to our equipment vendor immediately about this botnet attack to ensure our customers were safe. They confirmed our ALLO equipment is not affected. Additionally, the industry best practices we maintain to configure our equipment prevents the VPNFilter from harming our equipment or your service.
Some customers choose to utilize their own equipment instead of the ALLO provided Blast router, and in those cases, we recommend rebooting your router since we cannot troubleshoot or comment on the safety of non-ALLO equipment. If you’ve chosen to use your own equipment, we also recommend reading up on the VPNFilter botnet and learning more about the steps you can take to ensure your router and information are safe. This article is an excellent resource for ensuring security beyond a reboot.
If you have any questions or decide you’d like to utilize ALLO equipment over your own home router, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your local support team at 866-481-2556 or chat with us online. Stay safe, fiber fans!
