Millions of BT internet users 'open to hackers'?

Posted on May 28, 2008

You may have seen this recent sensational headline in The Daily Telegraph. As usual, the truth is a little different from the headline.

The article states that 'Criminals could use software easily downloaded from the internet to crack passwords and change settings on the company's popular Home Hub system in as little as five seconds, experts warned. One specialist stated that customers could be living in a "false paradise"'.

The reality is that BT home hubs are usually delivered to home users with a security setting known as WEP switched on. Unfortunately the ability to crack WEP security has been known for some time, but it does require knowledge, special tools and the "hacker" to be situated within physical range of your BT home hub.

The fact that the hacker needs to be physically within range of your BT home hub (i.e. a few tens of metres away) means that the risk of someone taking the time to do this is very small, so there is no need to panic.

To remedy this small risk by changing a setting on your BT home hub is very simple, and details of how to do it are explained on BT's help page at http://www.bt.com/help/hub. You may also need to update any wireless devices connected to the BT home hub.