The amount of cyber crime is increasing drastically every year, and nowadays a hacker attack can affect any of us. Securing your home network becomes a very important issue.
A strong password to access the network is the basis for safe functioning on the Internet. So forget about birthdays, first names or numbers in sequence. You should rely on combinations of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. You can also use online password generators that will create unique codes for you. It is also a good idea to change the username and password for the router’s administration panel.
Updating the router’s software is as important as updating our computer or TV. Nowadays, most manufacturers allow their users to access the update process through the administration panel. Just log in and download the update to your device
Every time we connect another device to our home Wi-Fi equipped with WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security, we need to find our network, send an access request and enter a password. In case of routers equipped with WPS (Wi-Fi Protection Setup), we have a choice of connecting via a special button or entering an eight-digit PIN code. It is a favorite target of hackers, because a password consisting of only digits is much easier to break than mixed passwords. That’s why it’s a good idea to disable this option in the router’s admin panel right away.
Trojans, worms, phishing, scamming, and even spyware – these are all lurking in the web and just waiting for the unwary user. Nowadays we have access to many free and paid antivirus applications.
So it is worth investing in a good program that will protect our home Wi-Fi and the data on our computers. Keeping it updated is also very important. Antivirus will periodically scan all files on our drives, check e-mail attachments and warn us against a possible hacker attack. Among free applications Avast is the king and is very often chosen by users. It provides basic protection, but in case of companies or if we care about full protection, we should consider a paid program, such as Kaspersky, Symantec or McAfee.
In the administration panel of the router we can create and manage lists of MAC addresses. This is quite an important function, because then we can be sure that our Wi-Fi supports only trusted users, and connecting to the Internet devices that are not on the list will be practically impossible. MAC address control will be an additional complication, which may discourage a hacker
Let us remember that nowadays the threat of a hacker attack may concern all of us. Protecting confidential data, access to our e-mail correspondence and payment card data is most of all a peaceful sleep for every Internet user. So it is worth taking care of the security of your home or business Wi-Fi network. We also remind you that every form of hacker attack should be reported to the appropriate services. The police have special units within their ranks, which deal only with cybercrimes.
