Last chance for Sky Broadband customers to claim free Wi-Fi router replacement – upgrade now for speed boost

SKY customers have hours left to claim a free router replacement.

The company is offering selected customers with a new Wi-Fi hub to ensure their kit is secure.

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Some older routers no longer receive important security updates that keep hackers out.

While there is no suggestion of an immediate threat, dated Wi-Fi hubs of any kind are far more vulnerable to attacks from cyber crooks when they stop receiving security updates.

These updates are also crucial for ensuring your device is up to date for the speediest connection possible.

Anyone with the Sky Hub 3 or earlier no longer receive these, which puts their network at risk.

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Sky recently alerted affected customers urging them to claim a free replacement.

"We wanted to let you know that while your hub continues to work as normal and will keep you connected to the internet, it no longer receives (or, depending on the type of hub you have, from 2025 will stop receiving) service and security updates," the company said.

Sky has given customers until tomorrow (June 3) to claim a free replacement hub.

"We’ll aim to deliver your hub to the address registered to Sky account by 17th June 2024," the firm added.

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"You must have received an email from us about this, be the primary account holder and are authorised to make changes to the account."

The changes follow new regulations that came into force recently, meaning manufacturers have to build extra security features into internet-connected products including washing machines and game consoles.

Passwords which can be guessed far too easily – such as “password”, “admin” or “12345” – are banned from use as well.

Manufacturers must now set up bug-reporting hotlines and email addresses to help make tech fixes quicker too.

Worst passwords revealed

In 2019, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) compiled 20 of the most common passwords around.

Common passwords mean they're easy for cyber thieves to guess - so if you're using one of these you might want to change it right now.

• 123456
• 123456789
• qwerty
• password
• 1111111
• 12345678
• abc123
• 1234567
• password1
• 12345
• 1234567890
• 123123
• 000000
• Iloveyou
• 1234
• 1q2w3e4r5t
• Qwertyuiop
• 123
• Monkey
• Dragon

Names, favourite football teams, musicians and fictional characters are also very popular and therefore easy to guess.

The best sort of password is long and easy to remember - so the NCSC suggests using three random words strung together.

Of course, you shouldn't recycle passwords on various platforms either. Should a hacker gain access to one they could then go onto access your other accounts.

So use a password manager to securely keep track of them all - Google Chrome and Safari can store these for you.