Why the FBI says rebooting your router can weaken a global malware attack
Source: Washington Post
May 30 at 2:56 PM
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking everyone with a home router to do one small thing: Turn your router off and then back on again.
The agency issued a warning on Friday asking home Internet users and small business owners to reboot their routers to ward off a pernicious piece of malware called VPN Filter. The malware infects routers during the first stage of an attack that eventually gives hackers great control over the devices connected to the Internet. The malware has been linked to a group believed to be connected to the Russian military.
Research from Cisco's Talos security group, published last week, estimates that 500,000 devices around the world may be affected by the malware, including routers made by major manufacturers such as TP-Link, Netgear and Linksys. While the FBI recently seized a critical part of the network that runs this attack, the agency still recommends that everyone reset their router, regardless of manufacturer, to cast a wider net.
Simply unplugging your router may not seem as if it could do much for your security. But resetting the router sets this complicated malware back to Stage One, said Ashley Stephenson of Corero Network Security. In its first stage, VPN Filter establishes a presence in a router, but it needs to talk to another part of the network to download the second stage of the attack.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/30/the-fbi-would-like-you-to-reboot-your-wifi-router/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e44d35f58c5f
I have complied with this request.
= new reply since forum marked as read
This time it did, but then I'd already known one was available (just hesitant to install it). I'll be honest, though--I'd not updated to the past two firmware versions even though I am religious about keeping my two laptops (and iphone/ipad) up to date. So, I knew I HAD to do this one....In my defense, I use very strong passwords and change them regularly... 
...so he could disconnect and reboot the router for our home office.
Our friends the Russians 
The router resets when the power is off and disconnected from the electric outlet.
If the plug stays in the outlet it might hold the previous settings, and then it hasn't reset itself.
Once you put the plug back in, turn the router back on, wait for about one minute until the blinky lights come on. You're good to go, and you can turn your computer back on. I have my computer and router on a multiple outlet surge protector so it's easy to shut the power off and on together.
However I'd say go ahead, to be on the safe side.
I know that routers have electric plugs that retain the charge for a short time even when the power shuts off (like in an electrical storm outage.) So after about 1 minute it loses that original charge and resets everything. It's possible that modems act the same way but I really don't know.
This message from the FBI is telling us to reset our routers, however it may not affect the modems because they may not be attacked by the same virus. Does anyone else know?
... of the socket in back, then you don't have to go crawling and hope to find the right plug in on your surge protector plug in bar.
And wait at least 15 seconds, the longer the better, so the memory gets dumped, as mentioned in a post above mine, too.
With older Motorola wifi, especially the DSL ones (some folks still using them), it was SOP to reboot it once a week, or you had problems and lags.
It is just a good idea to do this procedure once a week, it dumps the RAM on the router (gets rid of old garbage bits and pieces in the memory) and resets so all should be faster.
It really isn't that much different of a concept than shutting off your cellphone, that sure seems to fix any apps that are hanging, right?
Wait about a minute, plug it back in. Turn it on and wait for the little twinkly yellow/green lights to come back on.
It will reset itself and get a new IP address from your ISP.
When all the twinkly lights are on, you can turn your computer back on.
You'll have everything all the same on your computer, but the router has been reset.
