Top 10 tips for home users to secure WiFi networks

LOOMING THREAT: Criminals these days are hacking into wireless networks for nefarious purposes.

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Before five bomb blasts ripped through Delhi on Saturday, an Islamic outfit known as the Indian Mujahideen sent an e-mail to various news organisations threatening a terror attack. On July 26, the same outfit shot out a similar e-mail minutes before the Ahmedabad blasts.

According to cyber crime cell, terrorists hacked into the wireless or WIFI Internet accounts of innocent citizens to send the e-mails.

This has become a big cause of concern in the IT community, as well as for the home user, since most have wireless networks.

Security Brigade — an information security solutions company — has come up with a brief guide on how to secure home wireless networks. Here’s a look at the top ten tips:

One: Change Default Administrator Usernames and Passwords

Most routers or access points come enabled with a default set of username/password combinations. These combinations are well documented and available online for hackers to use. If a hacker can access your device’s administrative pages they can modify the configuration and control all aspects of your device. These username/password combinations can be changed from the administrative panel.

Two: Turn on WPA / WEP Encryption

All Wireless devices support some form of encryption. Encryption technology scrambles messages sent over the air and ensures that they cannot be intercepted by hackers. Several encryption technologies exist for wireless communication today. WPA is the strongest commonly available encryption technology for home devices, however, WEP can also be used.

Three: Change the Default SSID

Access points and routers all use a network name called the SSID. Manufacturers normally ship their products with the same SSID set for all routers. For example, the SSID for Netgear devices is normally "NETGEAR". The Default SSID can be changed from the administrative panel and should be set to something unique.

Four: Enable MAC Address Filtering

Each wireless device possesses a unique identifier called the physical address or MAC address. Access points and routers keep track of the MAC addresses for all devices that connect to them. Wireless routers offer the option to key in the MAC addresses of your home equipment so as to restrict the network to only allow connections from those devices. It ensures that rogue users cannot connect to the wireless router without using advanced MAC spoofing techniques.