How to secure your home wifi network in 5 simple steps

By kenneth Technology

Why is WiFi security important?

"1 in 4 Wi-Fi Hotspots Just Waiting to Be Hacked"

Kaspersky Lab (2016)

Without WiFi security, you may expose your home network to intruders who may be eavesdropping on your activities. According to Kaspersky’s analysis of over 31 million WiFi hotspots, about 28% of them have potential security issues. A compromised WiFi network may even allow malicious actors such as hackers to gain control over your devices connected to your network. These may lead to loss of privacy or even financial loss.

5 Simple Steps to Secure your Home Wifi Network

Step 1: Limit access to your Home WiFi

You may do this by limiting the number of people who have access to your WiFi network, or by changing password frequently.

This may cause some inconvenience, but also helps to remove unwanted guests or users you no longer wish to allow access to.

Step 2: Create a separate guest network from your home network

This allows your guests to use your a wifi network segregated from your important devices such as your printer, smart TV or speakers.

Step 3: Update your router firmware

This ensures your router receives the latest security patches.

Step 4: Enable encryption for your WiFi network

Most modern WiFi networks should already have encryption enabled. However, do ensure that you are using WPA2. This is the recommended WiFi encryption setting.

Step 5: Disable remote access to your home network

Remote access enables you to access your router from the open internet. Most of the time, remote access is not required and may subject you to unnecessary risk.

Additionally for more advanced users, you may also wish to detect if there are open ports on your ip address and decide if these ports are required to be open. This minimizes the attack surface on your router and your computer networks.

How to secure your home wifi network in 5 simple steps