> "I added firewall rules that blocked access to the router from outside the local network," Alexey said.

This could very well be what's causing the outrage from operators... suddenly losing connection with your router that's in some data center 3 hours away - requiring a drive-over just to discover it's some dude adding rules to your production equipment would be upsetting.

There's legitimate reasons for remote operators to have remote access from outside the network. Obviously the router should be secured with latest updates that guard against known exploits, but this could be a major pain for some operators.

(you'd also have to roll back to some backup since there's no telling what else the guy changed, even if you feel he's more-or-less trustworthy... which means more downtime for your customers)