Are Hackers Piggybacking on Your Wireless Modem?

U.K. wireless broadband service provider Eircom is contacting as many as 250,000 of its customers after discovering that hackers can tap into certain models of its Netopia series routers without the account holder's knowledge or consent.

The security breach affects the Netopia 3300 and 2247 series routers, according to a report.

The flaw likely would not jeopardize the user's account information, but sophisticated hackers could use the vulnerability to "piggyback" on users' connections, much as they do today with WiFi connections, Eircom says. The customer would then become responsible for any content accessed by the hacker over that connection.

Eircom advised customers to change their default WEP key and passwords to prevent the piggybacking exploit.

— Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading