Home Wifi Cybersecurity Tips
Your wifi router is the front door to your home network. Cybercriminals use hacked home routers in their botnets, and a hacked router would let the hacker see your personal information coming and going on your network or even redirect you to fake banking websites to steal your online banking passwords. As well, some computer viruses can spread over wifi.
Therefore, secure your router from your internet service provider (ISP), and any other network devices you use like retail routers, wifi extenders, and powerline adapters. This will help protect you from unwanted guests on your network, from the street or from the internet.
Default Router Admin Accounts and Passwords
Home networking devices often come with a default admin username and password, often “admin” and “admin”, which it makes it easy for someone to hack it. Change the default admin username to something you only know and change the password to something long and unique. Then store it in a password manager for safe keeping.
Update Your Firmware
Always install available firmware updates for your network devices to keep protected from the latest exploits.
Buyer Beware
Some network device manufacturers are slow to patch their products, so research the company on the internet before buying. Cheapest isn’t necessarily the safest.
Wifi Password
To prevent just anyone from accessing your network, require a password to join your wifi network, and make it long and unique.
Wifi Encryption
To prevent eavesdropping, always require encryption on your wifi network, and only use the WPA2 encryption protocol, not WEP nor WPA which are hackable.
Wifi Names (SSIDs)
Your home wifi network will have a name, or SSID, which anyone nearby can see on their devices. We recommend you change the default SSID to one that doesn’t identify who you are, where you live, or what brand of device you have.
Disable Remote Access
Some routers allow you to log into the admin panel from outside your home, remotely. Disable this to prevent hackers from being able to try to guess your admin password.