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Posted by Soulskill
Sparrowvsrevolutionn writes:
It turns out all those critics of the controversial Tor router project Anonabox might have been on to something. Late last month, Anonabox began contacting the first round of customers who bought its tiny, $100 privacy gadget to warn them of serious security flaws in the device, and to offer to ship them a more secure replacement free of charge.
While the miniature routers do direct all of a user's Internet traffic over Tor as promised, the company says that its first batch lacked basic password protection, with no way to keep out unwanted users in Wi-Fi range. And worse yet, the faulty Anonaboxes use the hardcoded root password 'admin,' which allows any of those Wi-Fi intruders to completely hijack the device, snooping on or recording all of a user's traffic.
Anonabox's parent company, Sochutel, says that only 350 of the devices lacked that password protection, and that it's fixed the gaping security oversights in newer version of the router.
The initial security criticisms of Anonabox helped to convince Kickstarter to freeze the proejct's $600,000 crowdfunding campaign in October. But Anonabox relaunched on Indiegogo and was later acquired by the tech firm Sochutel. Sochutel claims that the security flaws in the routers developed prior to its acquisition of Anonabox were out of its control, and that it's now hiring outside auditors to check its products' security.
Sparrowvsrevolutionn writes:
It turns out all those critics of the controversial Tor router project Anonabox might have been on to something. Late last month, Anonabox began contacting the first round of customers who bought its tiny, $100 privacy gadget to warn them of serious security flaws in the device, and to offer to ship them a more secure replacement free of charge.
While the miniature routers do direct all of a user's Internet traffic over Tor as promised, the company says that its first batch lacked basic password protection, with no way to keep out unwanted users in Wi-Fi range. And worse yet, the faulty Anonaboxes use the hardcoded root password 'admin,' which allows any of those Wi-Fi intruders to completely hijack the device, snooping on or recording all of a user's traffic.
Anonabox's parent company, Sochutel, says that only 350 of the devices lacked that password protection, and that it's fixed the gaping security oversights in newer version of the router.
The initial security criticisms of Anonabox helped to convince Kickstarter to freeze the proejct's $600,000 crowdfunding campaign in October. But Anonabox relaunched on Indiegogo and was later acquired by the tech firm Sochutel. Sochutel claims that the security flaws in the routers developed prior to its acquisition of Anonabox were out of its control, and that it's now hiring outside auditors to check its products' security.