RE: Routers and ignorant hicks

Washington DC

Description

Routers do FAR MORE than route data. Almost all routers today contain the network firewall. A router/firewall is where you set up VPNs (virtual private networks) to make networks in different place appear as a single network on a network map. Giving someone access to a router basically gives them access to every other point on the VPN network. Router/firewalls are also used to configure home/mobile access to the network and will include the user names and passwords that are needed to authenticate to the network. A router can be set for pass-through authentication with the IP of a server configured to allow or block access but that's less common. Router/firewalls are also where VoIP (Voice over IP) is generally configured so hacking a router can easily give you access to phone calls. In this case, police phone calls. Wouldn't the criminal Republicans just love to listen in on police calls about investigations into their wrongdoing. Anyone who understands technology knows that if you can hack the router/firewall, you can get into all kinds of things, unblock communication ports to allow secret remote control, set up hidden programs that send data back to your network while avoiding detection. Only an ignorant hick would think routers only route.