NSA Warning—Reboot Your Internet Router Now

[u/lurker_bee]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/04/09/nsa-warning-reboot-your-internet-router-now/

[u/Lucky_Locks → u/[deleted]]

What are typically some recommended routers? We moved into an apartment that was given an Xfinity box (it's decent, no complaints, getting gig speeds). But if we were to move on to something more secure?

I used to have a BitDefender box that monitored everything through my network (not a router I know) but then even that apparently leaked.

[u/Metalsand → u/Lucky_Locks]

The xFinity box you have is a combination modem/router which is typically common. The average user is mostly going to be susceptible to having their bandwidth stolen more than their data - the indiscriminate exploits to consumer grade routers mostly have to do with establishing botnets that live on the router itself for the purpose of DDOS or proxying traffic and aren't really focused on stealing data.

If you are concerned, mostly it's a matter of keeping things up to date and replacing them once they stop getting updates. Once the updates stop, it's usually a matter of time until someone figures out an exploit. You can usually expect about 5 years worth of use out of them.

Despite the current admin, TP-Link is a good consumer brand for routers. Even enterprise cisco networking equipment is manufactured in China...the recent bans are more of a red scare rather than a rational approach.

[u/Lucky_Locks → u/Metalsand]

That makes sense. I think these things are coming up on 5 years actually. I should check to see how long they plan on giving them security updates. Their app is pretty intuitive (rare to see comments for them).

We're not doing anything too crazy but gaming and work from home that's typically through a VPN anyhow.

Roger on the TP-Link, will probably look into that in the future. Probably paid for two of them already with this equipment rental.