How to Secure Your Home Internet from Hackers
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Home internet networks are particularly vulnerable to hackers. Although commercial targets often offer bigger paydays, the average home network is less secure than commercial networks. That makes them appealing targets. Hackers know they can likely access home networks without much work.
This doesn’t have to be true, though. You can certainly make your home network secure against most cyberattacks. Read on to learn how to protect your home network, including ways that WOW! Whole Home WiFi can make your network more secure.
What Are the Biggest Security Risks for a Home Wi-Fi Network?
There are a variety of ways that hackers try to compromise home networks. Two of the most common include:
Unauthorized Access
When your network is not password protected or not protected by a strong enough password, it can lead to unauthorized access. Hackers can use the network to access sensitive data and resources. If they choose to, they can cause serious harm, steal vital information, and compromise other systems on the network.
Man-in-the-Middle Attacks
These attacks involve a hacker putting their device between your device and the WiFi router to intercept sensitive information. For example, they might intercept your financial account passwords and gain access to your banking information.
How Can I Make My Home Internet Network More Secure?
Fortunately, you can do a lot to improve the security of your home internet! Effective home internet security tips include:
Setting Strong Passwords
Strong passwords are the foundation of a secure home internet. It’s always tempting to use an easy password for all of your accounts and for signing into systems like your home WiFi network. You must avoid this temptation, because there is nothing more attractive to a hacker than a system protected by a weak password. Consider getting a password manager. A password manager can help you set strong, randomized passwords for all of your accounts and can help you remember those passwords. All you need to remember is your one master password, and the manager will take care of the rest.
Updating Router Firmware
Router manufacturers are regularly monitoring security risks and updating their systems to protect against those risks. Hackers are always at work, looking for ways to compromise popular routers. They eventually succeed, so router manufacturers need to update their firmware from time to time to protect against such vulnerabilities. If you don’t update your firmware, you leave your device open to bad actors. It’s easy to update your firmware. Just read the instructions that came with your router and consider setting your system up to update automatically.
Enabling Network Encryption
The information traveling over your network can be intercepted by cybercriminals. It’s always a good idea to encrypt that information so that if it is intercepted, it’s much more difficult to decipher. You can learn how to enable network encryption by searching for information on your router and logging into your router to change the settings.
Enabling Firewalls
Firewalls filter the incoming and outgoing data travelling through your router. A properly configured firewall will allow you to get full use out of your router while also preventing malicious threats from breaking through into your network. Firewalls are another security feature that you can access through your router’s administration portal. If you are not familiar with how to do this, consider doing more research on your router for specific instructions. If your router is managed by your internet service provider (ISP), you can ask customer service for help on how to enable firewalls.
What Extra Security Features Does WOW! Offer for Residential Users?
WOW! is committed to helping you be as secure as possible. We offer a variety of features to ensure a secure home network and prevent hackers from accessing your sensitive information. Our Whole-Home WiFi and Eero WiFi protection offerings include:
Malware Blocking
Malware comes in all shapes and sizes. What they all have in common is the goal to compromise your security and access information that you want to protect. It can do everything from taking over your devices to accessing your banking info and setting you up for identity theft. Our WiFi offerings include automatic malware blocking to keep the malware out of your network and off of your devices. We are consistently updating our protections as well, so you can rest easy knowing that we continue to protect as the threats change over time.
VPN
Using a virtual private network (VPN) hides your location and the way that you use the internet from prying eyes. It also provides excellent protection against certain types of hacking. Our WiFi services include the option to utilize a VPN so you can protect your privacy and avoid potential threats.
Content Filters
Content filters allow you to filter what types of content are accessible on your network. This can be quite useful if you have kids in the house or if you want to avoid network users accessing potentially harmful content.
Get Help Securing Your Home WiFi
We are always interested in providing you with home internet security tips so you can protect yourself and your household. We go even further by offering systems, like our Whole-Home WiFi, that include a variety of secure home internet protections so you don’t have to figure everything out yourself. Ready for a safer, smarter internet? Talk to WOW! about Whole-Home WiFi and other internet options with built-in security.