Buying a home as a Latino in America is our way of achieving the American dream, isn’t it? When I moved to America, I worked hard to save up, eventually buying a home, and investing in many home security measures to secure my family’s future.
Yet, when it comes to home security, like most others, I also overlooked one very critical element, my home WiFi. Needless to say, this resulted in a not so favorable situation occurring.
Your home network is a gateway for cybercriminals to access your data through your devices, which makes it all the more necessary to secure it.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take to increase the level of security on your home WiFi, and in this article, I’ll share some that worked for me and might work for you.
Let’s get into them.
Choosing The Right Provider
The foundation of your home WiFi security begins with the provider you’re using, let me explain. You see, different providers offer a different level of security measures to protect sensitive data.
Personally, I found Cox to quite a reliable option in this regard. You can keep your data secure through their advanced security feature, malware and virus protection, as well as their password protection.
Plus, their speed and stability are also up to the mark. They offer bilingual assistance so if interested, you can reach out to them in English or Spanish via Cox servicio al cliente.
Set Stronger Passwords
Passwords are what most hackers are after, as this allows them direct access to any device or platform you might use. As tech advances, so does their ability to access these passwords and use your personal information for financial gain or other serious crime.
By setting stronger, and more potentially unbreakable passwords, you can minimize the chances of hackers breaking into your home network. There are two areas you’ll have to focus on here, your router admin password and your network password.
There are two steps you can take here, the first is setting a strong password for your router and WiFi yourself, and the second is using a passphrase generator to do it for you, I’d recommend the second. The passwords generated by these tools are random and anonymous, which can make them much harder for hackers to pass through.
Change your WiFi Network’s Name
Your router will have a default network name assigned to it, known as Service Set Identifier (SSID). Not changing this makes you a sitting duck in the eyes of cybercriminals as it creates the assumption that you might be using your default passwords on other areas too.
You need to get a tiny bit creative here and change your home networks name to something unique to you or something totally random. This will make it a lot harder for hackers to break through it.
There’s no rocket science behind changing it either, all you have to do is go to your router admin settings and set whichever name you like.
Create a Guest Network
Just like a restaurant, one of the things guests often ask when I have them over is, What’s your WiFi password? But giving it away greatly increases the risk of your devices and personal data being exposed.
Instead, wouldn’t it be much safer to create another network dedicated entirely to guests? They get to enjoy WiFi, and you get to keep your information secure. Call it a win-win situation.
Just like changing your network name, you can also create a guest network from your router’s admin page. Log in, scroll to Guest Network or Wireless Settings and turn on the guest network option.
Encrypt Your Home Network
This sounds technical, but really isn’t, let me break it down for you. Encryption is scrambling everything sent through your home WiFi into ciphertext. This makes it a lot harder for cybercriminals to access your personal info or monitor what you’re doing while connected to your network.
The process of encrypting your home WiFi is simpler than what you might be thinking right now. You just need to update your router admin settings to either Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2 Personal) or WiFi Protected Access 3 (WPA3 Personal).
If your router offers it, then I’d recommend setting it to WPA3 as this is the most updated and secure option available to you. However, if it only offers WPA and WEP, you might want to get a newer router as these options are not really going to do you much when it comes to protection.
Update Your Router’s Firmware
Router updates are essential as they often introduce newer features, and security measures. By keeping updates on hold for a long time, you’re giving hackers more room to identify and exploit weakness in your network.
Most routers update automatically once the provider launches the updates, but in case they don’t you can also update them yourself. To identify whether your router updates automatically or manually, visit your manufacturers website.
If it updates automatically sit back and relax, and if it doesn’t then you can install the updates yourself based on your providers guidelines.
WiFi Security – Keeping Your Home Safe Against an Advanced Form of Crime
Cybercrime is a new and much more dangerous form of crime, that is sadly only going to become more and more sophisticated with developments in tech.
While the steps I’ve shared above can’t guarantee complete security, they can significantly drive down the risk of your home falling victim to this new and advanced form of crime.