Secure Your Wi-Fi Router
Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) and router has made it so easy for anyone to use Internet on your computer, mobile phones, tablets and other wireless devices anywhere in the house without the clutter of cables.Don’t know what is a router?Read Here.
These are the times when anything and everything digital is prone to hack. Many people are now aware and take good measures for their online safety, but safeguarding the Wi-Fi router still lies low at the priority list of the most.
The reasons may range from lack of knowledge to mere carelessness, but your router’s security is as important as your front door’s because it is the foremost target of hackers trying to invade through your system.
Here a few simple things that you should to secure your wireless network:
1. Enable WPA2 (WiFi Protected Access) This is the first and foremost thing to do for everyone who has or plans to buy a router. It provides encryption to your system and its variant WPA-PSK can be found in home networks.
Those who use old routers, they might be having WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy security, and trust us, it is no better than zero security.
2.Change your Network’s SSID name The SSID (or Wireless Network Name) of your Wireless Router is usually pre-defined as “default” or is set as the brand name of the router (e.g., linksys).
Although this will not make your network inherently* more secure, changing the SSID name of your network is a good idea as it will make it more obvious for others to know which network they are connecting to.
This setting is usually under the basic wireless settings in your router’s settings page. Once this is set, you will always be sure that you are connecting to the correct Wireless network even if there are multiple wireless networks in your area. Don’t use your name, home address or other personal information in the SSID name.
3. Use a Strong Password Well, no talk on security can circumvent the importance of strong passwords.
Do you know if you increase your password’s length to just one more character, the chances of the hacker cracking your code with probabilistic ways are reduced by hundreds. (I’m just being modest, it is way too high).
4. Firewall of Your Router Well, if you have it, then Use it. It is the router’s inbuilt protection system to make it somewhat obscure from the hacker’s view. Also, new routers come with ‘stealth mode’ firewalls.
5. Turn Off UPnP The Universal Plug and Play protocol (UPnP) which is meant to establish easy connection with devices in the vicinity can make your router vulnerable and make it a potential target for the hackers (results could be DoS attacks as well). Not all the routers are susceptible to UPnP exploitation, but why take the risk.
6. Use VPN A personalized VPN service for your router is the way to go if you are willing to shed a few bucks for your important data. VPN works by giving your location anonymity on its server and even creates its own firewall to protect your network traffic.
Also, VPN is a better alternative than the router’s remote management feature which exposes its web-based interface on the Internet.
7. Enable Logging Feature The logging feature in your router keeps an account of the log attempts from all IP addresses and give you all the connection attempt details. This could help you monitor any ongoing suspicious activity.
8. Use Security Services You can also use cloud-based security services like Open DNS to screen the traffic through your router.
You simply have to configure your network to the online service’s name server rather than those used by your ISP. These web-based services help you to monitor as well as encrypt the traffic through your router.
