It's not just Sky who have problems with their routers, it seems that there could be a whole load more trouble for the rest of us.

The problem occurs with the ever favourite security concern, the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) feature built into most if not all newer routers, this allows the router to be modified by a service so that running games, instant messaging programs and other applications will work seamlessly without any user configuration.

If a user visits a website which has a malicious Flash file and the host PC has a version of Flash later than v8 then due to a flaw in UPnP they can be remotely controlled and allow a redirect to any website. While this could be a nuisance for some, if for instance attackers redirect trusted sites such as banks or ebay, customers could be exposing their login credentials to the attackers.

If fact there are numerous uses an attacker could find a use for a hacked router, and whereas antivirus software can detect a PC which has been compromised, a router is a lot more complex to discover. Routers made by Linksys, Dlink and SpeedTouch have been confirmed to be at risk, but this could also include many others.

Most routers come with UPnP on as default, but researchers say that the only defence at the present is to turn it off again, something which may be quite daunting to the majority of non-technical broadband users.