I was reading a blog post from Veracity today http://www.veracity.com.au/blog/5-ways-to-secure-your-company-s-wireless-router/ and it had some great information that doesn’t simply apply to business.
Most attacks on home or business networks can simply be prevented by some very simple changes.
Here are some of the simple steps that they suggest, and I will point out this is not an exhaustive list.
1. Change the Default Password
This sounds pretty simple, right?
You maybe surprised to know that most modems have a generic username and password that are standard as in usually they are admin and password. This should be changed as soon as it is installed and make sure you will remember it.
There are countless ideas on passwords and how to come up with a good one but generally speaking a mix of numbers, letters and symbols both upper and lower case is a good start try a phrase maybe “WillThisPasswordBeOk1” seriously don’t use that be creative and avoid using things people can guess.
2. Change the Default SSID
Ok this one can be a big issue. Have you ever turned on your WiFi to try to log in and found that there are 6 people in your neighborhood who have a modem from the same provider? They all have very similar names don’t they?
So change yours to something you know, feel free to have some fun here, one of my neighbors has “milk makes the cookies wet”. You could use “Have a great day” and bring some joy to your area. I will ask that you be sensitive here and remember that small children can potentially see this and please do not go out of your way to be offensive to people…
Remember we want to build a better world, bring some light and laughter to the world there is already too much darkness and fear.
3. Disable Remote Management
This one is important to disable, remember with all of these Google is your friend, do a quick search on your brand of modem and you should find instructions.
If for some reason down the track you need some IT help and someone needs to login you can always reactivate it.
4. Enable WPA2
This is an industry standard and all of the others have known vulnerabilities and are best avoided.
WPA2 is designed to protect networks and data and uses some pretty good encryption algorithms (math stuff) to do it.
Again if you do not know how Google it!
5. Keep Firmware Up-to-Date
Check on your manufacturers website for this one, it will let you know when there is an update.
If you find any of this too technical feel free to get in touch and if you are local we are happy to do a call out for a reasonable rate.