Your Wi-Fi network is the easiest way for people outside to get in your valuable files. What can you do to secure your Wi-Fi network? Once upon a time, Wi-Fi was so obscure that you could safely run one with no encryption whatsoever. Those days are gone.
Nowadays, you have to really tighten things up. Why? Well, not only are your files at risk, but if someone can connect to your network, they can use your internet connection to do things to get you arrested. Some people will serve up illegal files like child pornography over unsecured Wi-Fi networks.
If the Feds ever try to track down where it’s coming from, guess what? It’s coming from your network. You have a lot of questions to answer. So avoid that possibility by keeping your Wi-Fi networks thoroughly secured.
WPA encryption is almost… WPA encryption is currently pretty much the standard state of the art. There are better forms of encryption. And if you’re a large corporation, you might consider utilizing it. But for the small business, WPA is pretty effective. It can be cracked, but it takes a long time. And if your business has a small footprint, you’re probably not going to be in danger.
Additionally, hackers are lazy. They like to find less difficult encryptions to bypass, like WEP. WEP was the early form of encryption for Wi-Fi networks. And if you’re using an older router, it could possibly be running WEP. For that reason, you want to make sure and use newer equipment. Not only will your speed be faster, but your security will be better as well.
If you’re using an older router, say 5 years old or more, then you should call me up and let me help you out with getting a new one installed and secured. This way, you can sleep easy at night knowing that things are going to be extremely hard for hackers to get into with your network. And after all, that’s what we want. Unhappy hackers.
These Wi-Fi security issues exist all over the world, particularly in Northwest Arkansas. Communities like Pea ridge, Bentonville, Rogers, Avoca, Hiwasee, Gravette, Centerton. Gentry and Siloam Springs all have businesses with Wi-Fi which may or may not be secured as well as it should be. Any savvy business owner should review how his network is secured and confirm that it is indeed secure enough to pass muster and to foil the hackers. You don’t want to be the low-hanging fruit that they’re looking for. The easy-to-hack systems which they prefer. Most hackers will only work as hard as they have to in order to get in. They won’t carry sophisticated tools like password crackers. They prefer to find a network that is either wide open or that has a super simple passphrase which is easy to guess.
So how secure is your Net? Well, if you can’t answer that question instantly, then you need to do some investigating. Perhaps you need to hire a consultant like Bald Guy Consulting to come out and check things out for you and audit your security. It is a service that we offer. Whether you choose us or someone else, it’s important that you do periodically review the security of your network and make sure that it’s not an easy mark for hacking. Wi-Fi security is something that a business owner shouldn’t obsess about, but he certainly shouldn’t just forget about it either. It does need to be a concern of his, just as big a concern as keeping the front door or windows locked.
What sort of pass phrases are safe and effective? Well, how about old phone numbers? You can no doubt remember many of your old phone numbers. Including one that goes back several years. That’s a good passphrase to use for a Wi-Fi network. That means it’s a string that’s 10 characters long and that’s all numbers. You can also include the initials of family members or pets, or perhaps a favorite song lyric. Rather than use the entire song lyric, why don’t you just use the first letters of the words of the song lyric until you’ve got ten or so. It’s good to mix capitals and lowercase letters along with numbers in your Wi-Fi passphrase.
What about repeaters? Well, that’s really a discussion for another article. This article, we’re talking about Wi-Fi security. Wi-Fi security, when properly applied, means that anyone who is doing business with you can do so in confidence. They know that any private information they share with you that you keep on your own servers will be protected. That’s the biggest problem with Wi-Fi networks that are easy to hack. Once a person is on your network, all they have to do is a scan for shared drives. You have security on the shared drives, that helps. But the fact that they can actually see them gives them something to work on after hours. They might prepare a password cracker and set it to work on your server. And the password crackers will work unless you have some extremely long and complex passwords, which most businesses do not have. Instead of using prohibitively long passwords, it’s better to just stop them at the front door by implementing good, strong, common sense Wi-Fi security.
So to sum up, think of your Wi-Fi network as the doors and windows on your business. You don’t want people to just be able to lift up a window and get in. You also don’t want them to be able to walk through the front door. So put a lock on the door. Or in other words, put a good strong passphrase on your Wi-Fi network. You don’t have to put bars on your windows so to speak, but just hit the latch on the window and keep thieves from being able to easily slide it up and get in.
This article presented for you by The Bald guy IT Consulting. Thanks for reading.