People worldwide have been advised by the FBI to reset their routers. The FBI is warning the public that Russian computer hackers have targeted 500,000 small-office and home-office routers in 54 countries. This can leave your device vulnerable to spying, data theft, and more.

Wes Ens is the New Business Officer at Solutions IT in Winkler, and says it's a good idea to upgrade your router.

"We're aware of this trend, we're aware of this particular story and others like it," said Ens. "The threats are real."

He recommends upgrading your device's firmware, and upgrading the router.

As an example, Ens outlines thes steps for updating a common Cisco E4200 router:

- Make sure you've got a hardwired connection to the router before attempting to upgrade the firmware.

- Open your browser and type in the router's IP Address – typically 192.168.1.1 into the address bar. Hit Enter.

- Next, type in the router username and password.

- Now that you're logged into the router, view the firmware version currently on the router. example 1.0.02.

- Visit the Cisco Linksys support site and select you router's model to see if there is an updated version.

- If there is a new version, download it to a convenient location on your system. On your router go to Administration >> Firmware Upgrade.

- Browse to the location of the latest drive you just downloaded. Click Start Upgrade.

- Now wait while the firmware is upgraded. Make sure not to do anything else on your computer while the process is active.

- Then wait while the router reboots. You won't be able to access the Internet or network while it's rebooting. Click Continue.

- The router should now have the latest firmware version.

Ens recommends calling your local IT professional for further assistance. He also recommends backing up your information on an external drive or a Cloud source, such as Dropbox.