Households and top companies make sure to go to extreme lengths to keep away the unauthorized users off their network. Still, routers and Wi-Fi access points provide hackers a way to get in quickly.
This guide covers everything from securing wireless networks, router security settings, and router security setup. The reason is that Wi-Fi signals easily penetrate outside the walls of homes and buildings towards the streets that is a welcoming message for the hackers. No wonder that drive by hacking is among the favorite time pass of the cybercriminals.
As much company allows and encourages employees to connect to networks using their mobiles, smartphones, tablets, and laptops, it is not possible for the companies to switch off access to Wi-Fi. In this day and age, even anyone can hack into your wireless networking using a Wifi hacking app.
Top 8 Best Ways to Secure your Wireless Router
Let’s see how we can make our wireless networks make more secured and make us hacker-free users.
Strong Encryption (WPA-3)
Wi-Fi access points that offer the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) for standard protection is fundamentally broken, which means that professional hackers can use hacking suits like Air cracking and break into WEP protected network within minutes.
To keep you safe from such intruders use some variants of WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) or the newer WPA2 or even WPA3. WPA is mostly used by smaller companies and households which means that that the employees working in any company and the members of the same house use the same password and the security depends upon there sharing of the Wi-Fi password. Moreover, a password to be changed every time an employee leaves the company.
Wi-Fi routers also provide a feature called WPS (Wireless Protect Setup) which provides an easy pathway to get connected with a WPA protected wireless network. Make sure to disable the WPS in the router’s settings; otherwise, it becomes easy for the hackers to retrieve your WPA password.
In larger organizations, it is better to use WPA in enterprise mode like this each user will have their username and password to connect to the Wi-Fi network. This makes ease when employees are leaving the company regularly, then what you can do it easily disable the ex-employees accounts.
Also Read: How to Keep your PC Safe from Viruses.
Use a secured WPA password – Use a Password Generator
The passwords that you set for the Wi-Fi should be long and healthy, so a hacker does not easily crack it.
When you get a new device all the default details such as the name and password are printed at the back, so when you change both the access name and password, it makes it difficult for hackers to get access.
Use Cloud Cracker Service to test the security of your WPA-protected Network without revealing the password. All you need to do is provide some data information that could be extracted out by a hacker from nearby, and the service will attempt to extract your password.
If the service is unsuccessful, then the hacker is worthless as well, but if the service finds your password, then you have to change your password to one that is more strengthful.
WPA2 security standard is unlikely to resist a well-organized hacker all because of KRACK Wi-Fi flaw that was discovered back in 2017. The PMKID vulnerability was also discovered, resulting in breaches.
Check for Rogue Wi-Fi Access Points – Don’t Recognise it?
There come in huge security issues when we talk about Rogue access points. These are not the official Wi-Fi access points of the company but are the ones that are brought in by the employees or by the hackers who have entered your building and connected one to an Ethernet and hidden it.
What so ever the case, rogue access points present significant risks because you have no control over them or how they are configured.
For Example, One could be set up to broadcast your SSID (the 32 character identifier for a wireless network) and allow anyone to connect without providing a password.
To detect rogue access points all you need to do is scan your office and the area around it on a regular basis using a laptop that is fully equipped with suitable software such as Vistumbler or Airodump-ng. This software allows the computer to detect any wireless traffic traveling to or from a rogue access point and in the end, helps you identify where they are located.
Also Read: How to Remove Malware Viruses from Windows 10/8/7 Easily.
Provide a separate Network for Guests
Use a guest network if you want visitors to use your Wi-Fi device. Like this, they would be able to connect to the internet without getting access to your family’s or company’s internal network. This has an impact on the security for many reasons as they would not be able to affect your system with viruses or other malware.
Use a separate internet connection with its wireless access point that’s one way to do it. This becomes necessary as most of the business-grade and new consumer wireless routers are capable of running two Wi-Fi networks, one being the leading network another for guests.
For two crucial reasons turn ON the WPA protection on the guest network
- This will allow having some control over who uses it. Guests come in and ask for the Wi-Fi password as long as you change it on many measures you prevent the number of people who know it from growing too large.
- This protects your guests from other people on the guestlist network who might snoop on their traffic. Although they use the same WPA password to access the system, each user’s data is encrypted with a session key and hence keeps it safe from other guests.
Also Read: Top 7 Ways to Secure your Home WiFi Network.
Hide your Network Name
Wi-Fi devices by default represent the name of your wireless network, which is called the SSID (Service Set Identifier), which makes it easy to find and connect. The SSID can also be hidden from the settings to know the name of the network before you are connected to it.
Only the employees of the company and the members of the family should know the name of your Wi-Fi network besides this it makes no sense to broadcast it and allow others to get access to it.
Hiding your SSID is not the only measure to secure your network as professional hackers use software such as Airodump-ng which are capable of detecting your system and its SSID even when it is hidden.
Security is all about protecting your network by hiding SSID you avoid the attention of hackers, and they miss the opportunity to get in and cause issues. It’s a simple short worth a take.
Install a Firewall and keep an eye on it
Firewalls are the first line of defense against attacks coming from outside the network; most of the routers have In-built hardware firewalls that prevent a check on all the incoming and outgoing data and block any suspicious activity. The devices are set with authentic default settings and are ensured to do a proper job.
Software Firewalls run on the endpoint on a laptop or desktop and provide a better idea about what kind of traffic is passing through the device, or which ports are being used and where the data is going. It also keeps a check on what kind of applications are being used and can allow or block the particular program’s ability to send and receive data.
If in a case the software firewall becomes unsure about a particular program, then it asks the user what to do before it takes action.
Also Read: How to Find Saved WiFi Passwords in Windows 10/8/7.
Turn on Mac Authentication/Filtering for Everyone
Wireless devices have a unique serial number called Mac address which allows access to the network from a series of lectures that are defined by the administrator.
With the help of this, you can limit who accesses your wireless network, and it prevents unauthorized devices from accessing network resources.
Also Read: How to have a 100% Malware Free Windows 10 PC.
Install a Virtual Private Network
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) makes you safe and secure while you are working online and protects your things. It keeps your data hidden and secured from sore eyes by encrypting it. In theory, the hackers can get into your network and still would not be able to cause any harm, assuming that a VPN is running permanently.
IPVanish is giving a 69% discount on two-year plans throughout October 2019 to celebrate National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Read our guide to choosing the best free VPN service.
Note: The above tips should work on all types of routers and access points. They have been so far tested and are working on Tp-link, D-link, Netgear, Cisco, and Ubiquiti routers.
Keep your router updated
There are always vulnerabilities surfacing on the web, the latest one being is “kr00k” which was discovered by the company that developed ESET Antivirus. Companies are pushing for updates to the firmware to patch their hardware. Keep changing the default logins and your wireless keys regularly.
Final Words
In this tutorial, we have discussed how one can make their Wi-Fi Network all secured and free from hackers. We have highlighted ways for you to adopt that how you can make your wireless network strong enough to avoid any breakthrough. Always stay on top of any news or trends in the security world. There are many tools available such as Wireshark, John The Ripper, and many others. Please do let us know if you have any other router settings in mind or wireless network security tips.
That was all for this guide. I hope you will find this piece of hard work helpful if your answer is yes then please help us by sharing this article with your friends. If you have questions regarding this topic, feel free to use the comment section.