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NathanJones8
Guest
Data breaches are becoming quite common. Only recently, 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians were affected as Capital One came under attack and there have been worse data breaches than this. You might remember the time when the headlines only talked about Yahoo data breach. In 2013, hackers stole information of 3 billion people from the tech giant.
It is not just the behemoths that are targeted, the hackers also eye small and medium-sized businesses. A report by the Cyber Security Alliance concluded that 60 percent of these small businesses shut down within six months of the hack.
Even though the headlines are often tainted with such news, we rarely give a second thought to our home security network, which is far more vulnerable and can be easily hacked. In fact, in 2018, Russian attackers started targeting home routers. It is impossible to be completely prepared for all sorts of attacks. However, not all hackers are aware of every hacking trick and often hacking occurs because of simple security failings.
Signs that you are hacked
So you sifted through all the internet plans and selected the best one, but then your internet started acting up, and videos started taking a lot of time to load. It is probably because someone has started stealing your Wi-Fi because there is only a certain bandwidth available and when it is divided among a lot of devices, the internet slows down.
Wi-Fi stealing is perhaps a very innocent form of hacking but hackers often don’t have a simple agenda. With vulnerable networks, they get the freedom to do anything including data theft, identity theft and launching malware campaigns.
In worst-case scenarios, your system will lock down and you will get ransomware messages. Other than that, you might also get unwanted antivirus messages, unwanted toolbars, or your searches might get redirected.
What to do in case of an attack?
Don’t panic if you start seeing these signs. If you suspect your network is under attack, take action immediately. Disconnect your computer instantly. Once you do that, get rid of any software that the hacker may have installed. If you have multiple computers using the home network, then you will have to disinfect all of them.
In case your router has also been compromised, reset it back to the default settings. This will remove any firewalls or software the hacker may have installed in the system. Before you do that, note down the default user admin name and the password.
It would be great if you can also change your IP address as soon as possible because if the hacker was connected to you through the IP address, it would make it difficult to re-establish the connection.
How to set up a secure network?
It is better to be safe than sorry hence you should be well prepared for any sort of attack beforehand. While you cannot completely hack-proof your network, there are some measures you can take to ensure its safety.
The first thing you need to do as soon as you get a router is to change its SSID, password, and encryption. SSID is basically the identity of your Wi-Fi. If you are using the default SSID such as DLINK or Linksys, it makes it easier for hackers to identify the type of router you are using and subsequently hack it. Change your password as well and use around 16 to 20 characters.
Also, it is crucial that you change the encryption from WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to WPA 2 (Wi-Fi protected access) along with AES. WPA 2 with AES is the highest security standard available. Disable WPS and UPnP features, as well as they, allow devices to easily connect to your router.
Your router comes with a default setting of remote access through which you can easily use the console from a different location. But if you can, then someone else can as well. So, turn that off too.
Another thing you can do is to hide your network so that it doesn’t broadcast its SSID to passers. The devices that already have data stored in them will automatically connect and the ones that don’t will only see ‘hidden network’ display in the list of Wi-Fi connections.
You should also consider setting up a VPN as it adds more layers over WPS AES security and also hides your IP address. A VPN will automatically protect all of your devices.
Moreover, you can setup MAC filtering. MAC is basically the network card identifier and is unique, which means no two devices can have the same MAC address. Once you turn on the MAC filter, only devices that are allowed will be able to connect to the network.
Conclusion
These measures do make it difficult for hackers to gain entry into your network. However, it doesn’t make it foolproof. For that, you need to put in some extra effort and keep the router firmware up to date at all times as well as change your passwords frequently.
Continue reading...
It is not just the behemoths that are targeted, the hackers also eye small and medium-sized businesses. A report by the Cyber Security Alliance concluded that 60 percent of these small businesses shut down within six months of the hack.
Even though the headlines are often tainted with such news, we rarely give a second thought to our home security network, which is far more vulnerable and can be easily hacked. In fact, in 2018, Russian attackers started targeting home routers. It is impossible to be completely prepared for all sorts of attacks. However, not all hackers are aware of every hacking trick and often hacking occurs because of simple security failings.
Signs that you are hacked
So you sifted through all the internet plans and selected the best one, but then your internet started acting up, and videos started taking a lot of time to load. It is probably because someone has started stealing your Wi-Fi because there is only a certain bandwidth available and when it is divided among a lot of devices, the internet slows down.
Wi-Fi stealing is perhaps a very innocent form of hacking but hackers often don’t have a simple agenda. With vulnerable networks, they get the freedom to do anything including data theft, identity theft and launching malware campaigns.
In worst-case scenarios, your system will lock down and you will get ransomware messages. Other than that, you might also get unwanted antivirus messages, unwanted toolbars, or your searches might get redirected.
What to do in case of an attack?
Don’t panic if you start seeing these signs. If you suspect your network is under attack, take action immediately. Disconnect your computer instantly. Once you do that, get rid of any software that the hacker may have installed. If you have multiple computers using the home network, then you will have to disinfect all of them.
In case your router has also been compromised, reset it back to the default settings. This will remove any firewalls or software the hacker may have installed in the system. Before you do that, note down the default user admin name and the password.
It would be great if you can also change your IP address as soon as possible because if the hacker was connected to you through the IP address, it would make it difficult to re-establish the connection.
How to set up a secure network?
It is better to be safe than sorry hence you should be well prepared for any sort of attack beforehand. While you cannot completely hack-proof your network, there are some measures you can take to ensure its safety.
The first thing you need to do as soon as you get a router is to change its SSID, password, and encryption. SSID is basically the identity of your Wi-Fi. If you are using the default SSID such as DLINK or Linksys, it makes it easier for hackers to identify the type of router you are using and subsequently hack it. Change your password as well and use around 16 to 20 characters.
Also, it is crucial that you change the encryption from WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to WPA 2 (Wi-Fi protected access) along with AES. WPA 2 with AES is the highest security standard available. Disable WPS and UPnP features, as well as they, allow devices to easily connect to your router.
Your router comes with a default setting of remote access through which you can easily use the console from a different location. But if you can, then someone else can as well. So, turn that off too.
Another thing you can do is to hide your network so that it doesn’t broadcast its SSID to passers. The devices that already have data stored in them will automatically connect and the ones that don’t will only see ‘hidden network’ display in the list of Wi-Fi connections.
You should also consider setting up a VPN as it adds more layers over WPS AES security and also hides your IP address. A VPN will automatically protect all of your devices.
Moreover, you can setup MAC filtering. MAC is basically the network card identifier and is unique, which means no two devices can have the same MAC address. Once you turn on the MAC filter, only devices that are allowed will be able to connect to the network.
Conclusion
These measures do make it difficult for hackers to gain entry into your network. However, it doesn’t make it foolproof. For that, you need to put in some extra effort and keep the router firmware up to date at all times as well as change your passwords frequently.
Continue reading...