Incidents of Unsecured Wireless Routers at Residences and Colleges being misused for sending out Terror E-mails and stealing useful data esp. financial are on rise every day.
Many of us use Wireless Routers at our homes for Personal Broadband connections. The devices get configured in an unsecured mode by default and may thus be misused easily. The wireless signals may be accessible for upto 60-70 ft outside your premises and any person within this range can potentially break into your network.
A few essential practices for securing your router are as listed below. The actual process of setting these options will be different for routers of different makes and you will need to refer to documentation specific to your model for configuring these.:
1. Change the default Password for your Wireless Router. Most routers have a factory set username of admin and a similar password. Please change the password.
2. Enable Wireless MAC Address Filtering, also known as Access Lists. Please permit access only to the MAC addresses of yours and your family members’ devices. Deny access for other devices.
3. Set “Disable SSID Broadcast”: This ensures your SSID (network name) is not visible to unauthorized users.
4. Enable WPA or WPA2 Encryption (Wireless Protected Access). In case this is not supported, please use WEP: Set a good passphrase and never share it with others.
5. Keep the wireless router away from exteriors of your residence and turn it off when not in use.
