https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180606/11131739983/global-russian-linked-router-malware-even-worse-than-originally-stated.shtml

Late last month, the FBI announced that hackers working for the Russian government had managed to infect roughly 500,000 routers in 54 countries with a particularly-nasty piece of malware known as VPN Filter. The malware, which infected routers from vendors like Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, TP-Link, and certain network-attached storage devices from companies like QNAP, gave attackers the ability to track a victim's internet usage, launch attacks on other networks, and permanently destroy the devices upon command.

A subsequent Cisco advisory about the malware noted that the infection rate steadily increased since it was first observed sometime in 2016: