Hacking sky

It also said it did not want to disrupt the "vastly increased network loading as working from home became the new norm". But researchers were concerned by the speed - and time it took - for the company to respond, saying they believed Sky "did not give the patch the priority their customers deserved". If you have a broadband router mentioned above, the research company has advised you change the passwords on it from the default ones set. See more More Latest News.

See more Latest News. See more The News Explained. See more More Topics. Six million Sky broadband customers exposed to flaw that could let hackers steal bank info 19 November , Around six million Sky broadband customers were exposed to a security hack. Picture: Alamy. By Sophie Barnett sophhbarnett. Listen to this article Loading audio Cyber crooks could have used the flaw to access devices and personal data, according to the findings from Pen Test Partners. The flaw has been fixed, but the security researchers said it took the company nearly 18 months to fix the problem.

Sky said it took the security of its customers "very seriously" and had begun working to fix the problem as soon as it was made aware of it. The bug affected users who had not changed the router's default admin password — which was simple and easy to guess. It could enable hackers to easily reconfigure the router and take over a network just by directing the user to a malicious website. This could then give hackers access to sensitive information including log-in details for online banking and other websites.

In addition, around 1 per cent of the routers issued by Sky are not made by the company itself and could not be updated with the fix. Pen Test Partners said there was no evidence the flaw had been exploited but criticised Sky for the time it took to fix the issue. It claimed the internet service provider had repeatedly pushed back deadlines it had set to fix the problem. The researchers said they understood the initial delay due to the coronavirus lockdown and the challenges facing internet providers because of the "vastly increased network loading as working from home became the new norm", which it said it did not want to disrupt.

But they said they were concerned by the overall speed of the company's response, saying they believed Sky "did not give the patch the priority their customers deserved". The group also encouraged anyone with a broadband router to change the passwords on it from the ones set by default.