Blog Post

Wifi Security

  • By The Local Guy
  • •
  • 05 Dec, 2017

Summary

This article is designed to help private users and technicians avoid having security issues with their Wifi networks. We understand that turning off Wifi altogether is not an option in almost any office and for this The Local Guy has setup a list of standards that are to be followed to ensure that our customers do not have security issues both in the immediate and long-term future.

Wifi Security Best Practices List:

1. CHANGE THE DEFAULT SSID (BROADCAST NAME) AND PASSWORD

  • This is something we don't see too often. As a simple rule of thumb, never leave ANYTHING with the default username and password. Think about it this way, if you keep your email address password as '1234' how long do you think it will take to get hacked?

2. USE A GUEST WIFI SETUP

  • A guest wifi setup allows your clients in the waiting area to access the Internet while being entirely separated from your network. This takes all the risk of wifi away from your data but don't forget to set at least basic passwords on these devices to avoid people from using it in their cars or without permission.

3. USE UP-TO-DATE ENCRYPTION

  • There are 3 major types of encryption, Open, WEP and WPA. Without going into it Open and WEP are depreciated encryptions and shouldn't be used which leaves us just WPA. If you have the option use something called WPA2. This is an update to the original WPA and allows for better security. In general, it takes a lot more effort to break WPA/WPA2 encryptions because of the way it's designed. (If you want more info search google for 'wifi encryption wiki'.)

4. USE MAC ADDRESS FILTERING

  • This security requires a bit of setup but is great to keep users off the network regardless of if they know the encryption key or not. This is NOT recommended for guest network configurations.

5. WIFI NETWORKS SHOULD USE STATICALLY ASSIGNED IP'S

  • This tells the system not to 'setup' a computer on the network but rather force a user to manually configure the device to connect to the correct IP network being used.

6. MAKE THE PASSWORD MORE THAN THE REQUIRED 8 OR 13 CHARACTERS

  • It's rather simple to do this. Take your phone number and a favorite word and put them together. Walla, you have a 13 to 20 character password without having to memorize some strange alien writing.

7. HAVE REGULAR SECURITY AUDITS

  • This goes for your wired network and Internet connections as well. Simply put, technology changes, WEP used to be an OK security method, now we don't recommend it to anybody. Better security standards allow us better protection and more peace of mind.

Conclusion

This is a small list in regards to the different security measures that can be provided in todays wifi market. I hope this article gives a better understanding of some security features available to secure your network and keep your data safe. Most of these tips are easy to implement and many of them are available on existing technology.

Good luck and safe computing.

Share by: