I ran into a frustrating issue a few weeks back that made me question almost every “best practice” I’d been blindly following. It all started when I got a couple of email alerts about login attempts on my primary email account—from IP addresses that didn’t match any of my usual connections. Initially, I brushed it off as the typical background “noise” that most of you claim is normal. But then I began noticing something else: my browser was acting strange, redirecting searches to odd URLs and even occasionally displaying warnings about insecure certificates on sites I’ve visited hundreds of times without any problem.

At first, I followed the standard online advice. I changed all my passwords and enabled two-factor authentication on every account. I ran full scans with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes, and even booted into safe mode to isolate problematic processes. Yet, the alerts persisted and my browser behavior didn’t improve. I even reinstalled my browser after some frantic Googling to eliminate any possibly malicious extensions, but with no success.

Frustrated, I dug a little deeper. I started checking my network traffic using Wireshark—a tool I had mostly relegated to curiosity—and noticed unexplained DNS requests going out that didn’t line up with my configured DNS settings. That’s when it hit me: maybe it wasn’t my PC that was the problem at all, but my router. I jumped into the router settings (yes, the very device most online advice overlooks) and found something odd in the DNS configuration. It wasn’t pointing to my ISP’s server or a trustworthy public DNS at all—it had been switched to something obscure.

Long story short, it turned out that I’d been the victim of a router compromise. A phishing email I’d clicked on earlier—in what I initially thought was a standard scam email—had actually directed me to a site that exploited a vulnerability in my router’s firmware. The attacker had hijacked DNS requests, which meant that even secure sites could be impersonated. This explained the redirections and the strange certificate warnings.

The solution was surprisingly simple once I identified the issue: I updated the router’s firmware to the latest version, performed a hard reset to factory settings, and changed the default admin credentials to a complex, unique password. I also locked down remote management, a setting I’d long ignored because I assumed it wasn’t an issue for a home device. Finally, I reconfigured the DNS settings to use a trusted service (I went with Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, having read about its security benefits). Almost immediately, the suspicious activity ceased.

For anyone encountering similar issues, my tips are:

Don’t assume that all suspicious activity is from a compromised PC—you might be dealing with a compromised network device.
Check your router’s DNS settings and firmware version; many guides only focus on endpoints.
Use network monitoring tools like Wireshark if things feel off. Even if you’re not an expert, basic traffic anomalies can provide crucial insights.
Always change default passwords and disable features (like remote management) that you don’t use.

I remain skeptical of overhyped security principles that focus solely on endpoint protection. Sometimes, the weakest link is something you’ve long thought was mundane or secure by default. Stay vigilant across your entire network.