Ensuring Your Home Stays Cyber-Secure
Your home can still be your castle – even in the digital age
Home cybersecurity used to be fairly straightforward, but these days the situation has changed. With the internet playing an increasingly dominant role in how we live and work, you should take a moment to examine whether your personal Wi-Fi network is truly secure. Here are a few easy tips and tricks for how you can best protect yourself and your home in the digital age.
Your wireless network
Consisting of a modem and a router, wireless network devices are responsible for bringing the internet into your home and directing it to all your internet-compatible devices.
You need to change the default administrative password within the router to establish control over the configuration of your home system. Be sure to use a password that is difficult to guess. Try using a random series of words that are easy for you to remember. Employ numbers if possible and capital letters for extra security. At the end of the day, you want to protect yourself by making sure that only devices you know and trust have access to your Wi-Fi network.
For extra security and peace of mind, you can even consider installing a guest network. That way, you can let visitors connect their devices but avoid opening yourself up to potential security problems.
Passwords
To have confidence in your cyber security, you will want to take a hard look at the strength of all your passwords – from your wireless network to the passwords you use for each device and application.
You should try to use a different password for each device and account. This can be a daunting prospect, as it is now common to have dozens of accounts that require a password. Use a password manager tool if you are having difficulties. There are a variety of different services out there, and you can easily compare features and prices online.
Finally, don’t forget about enabling two-step verification wherever possible. Two-step verification is where two authentication steps are performed sequentially to verify whether an attempted login is legitimate. Often, this process involves a login through an online account and then the entry of a numerical code that is either emailed or texted to the account holder.
Devices
It’s wise to become familiar with all of the devices you foresee needing to connect to your wireless network. While in the past this largely consisted of a couple of personal computers, it now could include everything from smartphones and television sets to printers, refrigerators and cars. Educate yourself not only on each device’s make and model, but also its IP address. You’ll also want to save yourself some headaches by enabling each device to download and install automatic security updates.
Regular Backups
Unfortunately, no matter how cautious you are, you may still have a security lapse someday. You should have a contingency plan in place and regularly archive your important files and programs.
There are many different strategies you can take to make this easier. You can store your data on the Cloud with end-to-end encryption. You could save it to an external hard drive. Or you could even go the untraditional route of burning your data to a CD. Whatever you decide, you will want to make sure that you can reliably restore your data following a security breach. The good news is that many mobile devices already support automatic data backups, and there are numerous software options out there that are cost effective and relatively easy to use.
Final Thoughts Creating a cyber-secure home network can feel like a challenge. But the benefits of doing so far outweigh the costs. By adhering to these steps, you will be able to create an online experience that is fun and efficient but that does not skimp on security.
Tags: #becybersmart, #NCSAM #NCSAM2020 #NationalCybersecurityAwarenessMonth, cybersecurity