The whole aspect of security of wireless networks has become very important ever since terror e-mails were sent to media by alleged terrorists. Terrorists used unsecured wireless networks to hack into an individual's Wi-Fi network and sent e-mails just before bombs went off in Ahmedabad and New Delhi.
It is in this environment protecting your unsecured Wi-Fi network becomes very important lest somebody misuses the same.
Here are 10 simple ways in which you can secure your wireless network :
1. Change default administrator usernames and passwords :
Most routers or access points come enabled with a default set of username / password combinations. These combinations are well documented and available online for hackers to use. If a hacker can access your device's administrative pages they can modify the configuration and control all aspects of your device. These username / password combinations can be changed from the administrative panel and should be set to something difficult to guess.
Keep a password which is difficult to guess and not easy to crack. A good password is 8 characters long, not easily guessable, contains mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and preferably contains special characters like $,*,%,!.
2. Turn on encryption :
All wireless devices support some form of encryption. Encryption technology scrambles messages sent over the air and ensures that they cannot be intercepted by hackers. Several encryption technologies exist for wireless communication today. WPA is the strongest commonly available encryption technology for home devices. While WEP can also be used cracking WEP is just a matter of few minutes. We would advice corporates to go for WPA with EAP Authentication, TKIP / RC4 Encryption or WPA 2 with EAP Authentication, AES-CCMP encryption for better security. |
