A quick scan of this article from SecurityFocus.com (English) will let you know just how vulnerable a lot of the Internet's infrastructure is. That's why I'm putting it up: I don't think it's likely that anyone visiting a42 really wants to hack a router; but I do want to drive home the importance of understanding security basics and taking protective measures in your own sphere of living.

Cisco routers are one of the basic building blocks of the Internet. Again, I seriously doubt that the author (Mark Wolfgang) really wants any of his readers to hack into Cisco routers and bring down the Internet. I think he wants to bring the reality of the situation into focus by making people aware of the flaws in the system. Here's an excerpt that gives you a taste of the whimsical way the article is written:

"Pen testers may often go after the more glamorous or fun systems to hack, such as the vulnerable Solaris 8 system, or the Microsoft 2000 server vulnerable to the slew of recent RPC DCOM holes, leaving the core network infrastructure devices alone. I would caution the pen tester to think twice about overlooking these critical systems, for these are the proverbial keys to the kingdom..."

I hope that this and articles like it will bring these issues more into the public's view. Our specialized society is built with the assumption that these devices will continue to function; their failure or even crippling could make our lives very different in only a few days.

Willy Smith, reporting from Costa Rica