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How to protect home or business wireless network?

How to protect home or business wireless network?

One Of The Comprehensive Solutions Available To Protect Wireless Networks For Home And Business Users Is Strong Wireless Encryption Patterns. 

Cryptographic algorithms can prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to personal or organizational information by obfuscating the signals sent or received by clients.

In wireless networks, cryptographic algorithms ensure that data is transmitted securely and that cybercriminals cannot gain access to information using techniques similar to man-in-the-middle attacks.

In such a situation, if hackers manage to break into the network infrastructure and capture the data, they will still not be able to listen to the information that is being transmitted because they do not have the encryption key. Various encryption algorithms have been proposed to protect the wireless networks that routers create, the first of which was the WEP algorithm. WEP was one of the earliest algorithms to save Wi-Fi networks. Still, the rapid development of information technology made the vulnerabilities of this algorithm quickly apparent, so today, it can be broken down in less than a few minutes.

If you are using an old router that only provides such an algorithm to protect your Wi-Fi network, we suggest you consider buying a new one as soon as possible.

Encryption algorithms of wireless networks

New routers, while providing you with more features and speeds, also offer powerful security algorithms. After identifying the shortcomings of the WEP algorithm, security experts proposed the WPA algorithm as a solution to this problem. The above algorithm continued to exist for a short time until its vulnerabilities were identified. Vulnerabilities that allow hackers to break the above algorithm and penetrate the wireless network by implementing a sweeping attack.

A robust algorithm that cannot be easily broken. This issue made network experts replace WEP with another more powerful algorithm called WPA2. Users can use WPA and WPA2 algorithms in private mode (Personal), whose symbol is PSK3, and enterprise mode (Enterprise), whose symbol is RAIDIUS5. Home users mainly use personal models, and their implementation is not complex.

The user specifies a password for the router, and then every mobile device that connects to the wireless network uses the specified password. When choosing a password, an important thing to pay attention to is using specific keywords. Network security is significantly improved if the user uses a complex password combination of uppercase, lowercase letters, and numbers with a length of at least 13 characters.

If you use words in the dictionary of hacking software or the names of specific people and places, you seriously undermine the wireless network’s security. A strong password can be something like asd&*(BNH8394$). Another important thing you should pay attention to is the connection type. Nowadays, all routers provide an option or button called WPS.

The above feature allows devices that use the encryption algorithm WPA2 support to connect to a wireless network by pressing the above button on the router and the device. Unfortunately, the above feature has a big problem.

WPS is vulnerable to spamming attacks. For this reason, if you use a wireless network in a sensitive place such as a company or a complex with many residents, it is better to disable the WPS feature of the router. WPA2 algorithm can also be used in enterprise mode. But to use the above method, some requirements are needed.

The first step is to have a RADIUS server or a hosted RADIUS service. In the second step, pay attention to the fact that the WPA2 protocol works in interaction with EAP-TLS. In general, we must say that the main factor that compromises Wi-Fi networks is the man-in-the-middle attack vector.

In this attack vector, network users are directed to a malicious site. In the next step, hackers trick them into entering important information, such as passwords and usernames, into fake pages.

Organizations that use the WPA2 protocol in conjunction with the EAP-TLS authentication protocol will ensure that only authorized employees gain access to the network. The EAP-TLS authentication protocol requires users to use the assigned certificate and password.

Use secure Wi-Fi networks.

Another point we should mention in this context is connecting to public Wi-Fi. Connecting to a public and free Wi-Fi network is tempting for most users. However, be careful that these networks are not secure in most cases and may be a trap that hackers have set for you. To steal personal information and bank card information. In most cases, hackers quickly deceive users by creating fake hotspots.

For this reason, our suggestion is not to use such networks as much as possible. Also, if you have to use these networks to enter the Internet and access your user accounts, try to use InPrivate mode, which is located in browsers and deletes information when you leave a site. But don’t try to connect to bank accounts through public Wi-Fi or make financial transactions.

  • In extreme cases, turn off communication options and connect to your phone.
  • If you are not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it is better to turn them off. The most significant advantage of this is prolonging the device’s battery life. Also, keep in mind that due to the security breaches detected in the Bluetooth mechanism, it is possible that hackers can attack your Android phone through Bluetooth.

Use strange passwords for the network.

Passwords that different people choose indicate that these passwords are not secure. “We always recommend long passwords, but that doesn’t mean you have to use repeated characters in a password,” SplashData director Morgan Slane said. As much as possible, try not to use passwords that refer to the names of famous people. In the past years, most users used the words of their favorite movies as their passwords. Always look for combination passwords that consist of characters and numbers.