I mentioned this two years ago, but I guess nobody from Eircom happened to stumble onto my site at the time. Eircom has finally realized that all those wireless routers that they've been providing to people are pretty easily hacked. They all have the same password, which means the customer should change it as soon as the system is installed. But, nobody from Eircom told the customer.
What surprised me then - and as far as I know they haven't done anything about this - is those customers who were using desktop PC's, who didn't need wireless, were still given a wireless router. People who had no knowledge of WiFi, no understanding of what that piece of equipment on their desk is all about were never told that they needed to change the password of their router. This was the case even when Eircom sent a technician to install the router and get the broadband working.
And, of course, as the market-dominant former semi-state, Eircom has a disproportionate number of customers who just wanted broadband, but were never geeky enough to even consider asking any questions. The whole process was just too mysterious for them. They simply trusted old 'Ma Bell'.
Sure, you can say that the customer should have been more savvy, but broadband is sold like digital television and how many people understand how that works? No, this one's on Eircom because (a) I'm sure they knew that people were leaving themselves open and (b) it was just too much bother to explain this to people or even open the whole security can of worms.
