We Strongly Recommend These Actions Be Taken Asap.

We can email you detailed information from the FBI that lists the actions they recommend. Please let us know if you would like us to assist with these steps.

The FBI has issued a warning that hundreds of thousands of home and office routers have been infected with malware. This dangerous threat can collect information and also render your network inoperable. The FBI recommends the router be rebooted to temporarily disrupt the malware. Owners are also advised to disable remote management settings and secure the devices with strong passwords. They should also be upgraded to the latest firmware.

If you have any questions or concerns about your software or router, please feel free to reach out to us. Peak IT 330-259-3454/Valley Office Solutions 330-729-1000

Here’s A Summary Of The FBI Notice And How To Reboot Or Reset A Router

In the warning, the FBI mentions that they didn’t yet know much about the origins of the initial infections, but the attack has grown significantly. Hundreds of thousands of routers in both homes and offices have been infected with malware known as VPNFilter. Since then we’ve heard that an unidentified group of cybercriminals may have mounted a large-scale attack on networked devices across the globe.

Symantec, a cybersecurity firm, has published a list of devices that are known to be more vulnerable to this type of attack. The article states that most of the devices targeted are tend to use default passwords or the router has not been updated to the latest version of its firmware.

Anytime you are on the phone with any tech help, the first thing you are asked to do is to restart. Rebooting gives your device, a router, a fresh start.

The FBI explains that power-cycling could interrupt the VPNFilter virus, though Symantec has cautioned that this type of attack can persist even after a reboot. If you are using one of the devices that are known to be susceptible to malware, consider resetting your router to factory settings. With this type of reset, you will need to set up your WiFi all over again; sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.

FBI Link

Contact us today for any assistance with office solutions!

“That’s not the way we did it.”

“When I was your age, we had to…”

“How do you work this Insta-face?”

“I type fast enough!”

“You would have never survived in my day without all this technology…”

Our parents—and for some of us, our grandparents—worked in a much different environment than we do today. In the last ten years alone, several state-of-the-art office technologies have become obsolete before our eyes and some have evolved.

An old Facsimile machine circa 1848: By European Patent Office [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Take the fax machine, for instance. While the technology dates back to the mid-1840s, the fax machine as we know it wasn’t produced en masse until the mid-1980s. It took over a hundred years to get from transmitting electricity to a poor-quality image projected into a cylinder to using a telephone wire to transmit images. These were still low-quality compared to today’s standards—that printed from a dedicated machine in six minutes. In fact, Valley Office Solutions brought the first fax units to the Youngstown area in 1984!

These fax machines reigned supreme in the workplace up until the late 2000s. In the last ten years, we’ve gotten rid of the ‘dedicated’ phone lines and machines to join the 21st Century’s technology boom. Though some of the ‘traditional’ equipment still exists, we can now send faxes digitally without tying up a phone line!

Our brief history of the fax machine hasn’t explained the changes enough the next sentence might. Today’s office is nowhere near the same as those of our fathers. There is a long list of technological advances, but the change is really the result of the technology.

First, the modern workplace has changed how efficient and productive we are. Like we said in our last blog article, technology—like the multi-function printers,presentation equipment, and display boards available today—makes it easier, quicker, and cheaper to do the same things that our fathers did in the past. Daily business tasks like invoicing, filing, and maintaining customer relationships require less paper, fewer man-hours, and less stress. 

Anyone in the business realm today will tell you that this second point has changed their lives. Whether it’s for good or for the bad, our methods of communication are at a whole new level. With the development of email, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)*, chat functions, video calling, instant messaging, and text messaging, we can now communicate instantly with our officemates and our consumers.

This instant communication has changed the way we work. We are no longer waiting for the interoffice mail or waiting for more than 24-hours for the associate in Beijing to come back and fill you in on the project. We can partner with people around the world to create products and research possibilities anytime, anywhere. 

Finally, our third example of the changing workplace is security. In the past, our fathers’ had to worry about people leaking new ideas, but not to the same extent that we do today. The digital world can be a scary place and not everyone uses technology for the good. That’s why we developed Peak I.T., our partner company for network and data security.

We use technology and encryption methods that have never been hacked because it’s our mission to stay one step ahead of the game. It’s not as hard as our fathers think to make sure that the data you value is only accessible to the right people. Peak I.T. can not only monitor the health of your computers, multi-function printers, and other devices on your network, but they help prevent loss and restore your data in case of emergencies. 

We’re sure at this point you’re wondering how our fathers ever made it in business, but that’s the great thing about technology. While it’s always advancing, there are just somethings that are here to stay. We may not send faxes the same way we used to, but the tried-and-true business methods are still there. They have just evolved with the growing technological world around us. 

*Valley Office Supplies offers custom phone systems. Call us for more details!