This one is scary because it has the potential to affect so many people. It turns out about half of the routers on a home network may have a critical security feature basically disabled by using the default setting… the password. This is bad enough, but now there are malicious Javascript programs being used on web sites which can alter your network settings without you knowing about it. And once your settings are changed, you may be taken to hacker sites which can steal your passwords or personal information, like internet banking logins.

So, if you have a router (a little box which connects your network to the internet), you should check the manual to see how the password is set, if you haven't done so already. If you need help figuring out if you have one or how it's set up, contact your favorite computer professional for assistance ASAP. Not sure if you have a router? Take a look at this picture of a home network to get an idea of what one looks like.

For more information about this threat, here's an article from The Register. Be sure to check out the Symantec page, too (it's linked at the start of the article). It gives an excellent description of how the attack works and advice on how to fix it. Also check out the video - it does a beautiful job explaining the problem. And finally, here is a router default password list. It's quite a list, and illustrates just how widespread the problem could be.