Updated: 3/10/2019
Security has become an ever more important part of using a personal computer. Increasingly, the daily headlines include news of companies and websites getting hacked. It is important to learn how to properly secure your wireless Internet as well as secure your personal computer.
This article focuses on how to secure your wireless network router so that you do not become part of the statistics. The wireless router typically includes a firewall that defines the perimeter of your network. Think of this as a fence, walling off your network from the Internet. Having a vulnerable wireless network allows criminals to ppossibly steal your data as well as Internet access. You could also become responsible for illegal downloading if your wireless Internet was compromised.
October 2017 Wi-Fi KRACK attack Warning
KRACK attack on Wi-Fi. Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. Virtually ALL Wi-Fi equipped devices need to be updated. The attack is particularly bad on Android 6.0 and Linux. If you have a device with no updates (eg Internet of Things), you will be open to attacks.
You should not be using any non-802.11ac devices any more, if at all possible; and you should make absolutely certain you’ve updated the firmware on all routers to the latest available version.
If that newest available firmware version is older than November 2017, it is without a doubt vulnerable to KRACK, and you’re going to need to discard and replace that device. If it’s older than, say, July 2018 it might or might not include KRACK mitigations, and you should go through all of that device’s firmware release notes since November 2017 to make certain.
Government Spying via Compromised Wi-Fi Routers
Continue reading “How to Setup a Secure Wireless Network Router”