5 tips to protect your WiFi network from being hacked into
Many people do not configure their WiFi networks to be private, leaving them highly open to hackers. Here’s how you can protect your WiFi from being accessed by other people or hackers:
- Set a strong password. No 12345 passwords, please. Or your birthday. Or your pet’s name. Make it hard for anyone to guess and DO NOT forget it. You might want to change it often as well, but make sure it’s always very hard for other sneaky wannabe-users to guess.
- Use WPA2 routers: According to network engineer Thomas Yobe, you should use the latest and advanced encryption technology e.g WPA2 instead of WEP, with the very latest one being WPA2-EAS.
This is because WEP is easily cracked by software like Aircrack, Cain and Abel, etc as users set shorter and less secure passwords. You need to use WPA2 when you really need better protection. Check your WiFi router’s settings to make sure you’re using WPA2-AES instead of WPA2-TKIP as the former is more advanced, secure and highly recommended than the latter, which was used mostly for older devices. TKIP encryption may even slow down your WiFi so you better pick AES. - Disable SSID broadcast: Thomas also advised businesses to disable their wireless network not to broadcast its SSID (WiFi network’s name). You can manually set it up on your WiFi-enabled devices.
- Disable anything you don’t need: like hiding your device from other networks. Turn off your hotspot when you’re not using it. Disable WiFi connectivity on your device as well when you’re not using your hotspot.
- Update your router’s software: some device manufacturers send regular updates and patches for their routers so check that these are updated all the time. These may come with bug fixes, stronger encryption and security and will protect you from attacks/hacks on your WiFi network.
So in short, hide your network, create a strong password and get WPA2-AES settings activated on your router. This information is all useless if you don’t have one in the first place so here are tips to consider when buying one.
Mostly sound advice but….
Ok so point 3 is security by obscurity really – and doesn’t really secure you any better: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/ – it arguably will cause you more problems in the long run and actually potentially has separate security implications
Point 4 – really? How do you disable the wireless router’s wireless if you perhaps can’t connect to it via a cable and it doesn’t have a hardware switch like a laptop might have?
I’d add a point to make sure you change the routers administration password from the factory defaults as well because if a user plugs in a cable they could easily get the wifi password out of the router by just logging into it via LAN cable as many AP’s/Routers don’t obscure the wifi key like a password. They could then even just plain reset it to what they want but thats a bit more obvious to detect when your wifi doesn’t connect.