How to Secure Wireless Router from Hacking or Malicious Attacks

Now that everyone hates wires, wireless network routers have become as common as an internet connection. There are many perks of having a router, such as the multi-device connectivity and the perks of having a home network etc — and of being wireless! Due to this popularity, hackers and evil hands have started targeting wireless routers as an effective method to steal data, privacy and identity. To prevent these malicious attacks, most wireless routers come with in-built security measures. That having said, you have the responsibility to check whether your wireless router is infected by a virus or attacked by a hacker.

Among the many ways to know the presence of hijacking, Router Checker from F-Secure is the most popular one. It’s possible to use the web-based tool, free of cost. You can use it to confirm that your device is connected only to a site or blog you intend to visit — and not some hacker’s machine. If you find some issues with the router, you must take care of all the necessary actions.

Even if you don’t, it’s essential to secure your wireless router from hacking or virus infections. In this article, we will tell you some ways to protect your router.

#1 — Use WPA2 Wireless Encryption

As you might know, there are different wireless network encryption protocols! They are WEP, WPA and WPA2 etc. These protocols were introduced in the course of time to ensure best security of wireless networks. WPA2 is the best encryption in the list, offering tightest-level protection. WPA2 offers protection techniques like the mandatory use of AES algorithms. In short, WPA2 + AES is the most secure form of encryption that protects your wireless router from a number of threats, such as hackers’ attacks. So, it’s ideal if you can choose WPA encryption and disable WPS. So, we were saying, you should shift to the WPA2 scenario as earlier as possible. By the way, if you’re using a router with no WPA2 support, you should better change it.

#2 — Use a Complex Password

We hope you are not that foolish to keep the default password of your wireless router. When you change the default password, however, you should pick a complex one, which enhances the security. Obviously, there are many factors that make a good password. They include the use of alphanumeric characters, special characters and non-guessable behavior too. Practically speaking, you should not put your phone number or name as the Wi-Fi router password. If you do that, it’s more or less like leaving your network open. Although we mentioned it second, it happens to be the first step towards a secure wireless router and to prevent others from stealing your resources.

#3 — Enable MAC Filtering

If you have spent some time with routers and all, you would have heard about MAC Filtering. In case if you don’t get an idea, MAC address is a unique ID that every network device has; the list includes your Smartphone, PC, iPod etc. It is one of the safest ways to allow only some devices to access your network. That is, you can turn on MAC Filtering to add your devices’ MAC address to the list. Then, only those added devices will have access to the Wi-Fi network. This is not a completely foolproof solution, since there are options for spoofing MAC address of one device. Despite that, you will be able to enhance the security a lot by enabling MAC filtering.

#4 — Upgrade to the Latest Router Firmware

If you have been using the same wireless router for a while, you may not have updated the firmware. Since nothing is really perfect, there may be flaws and issues with your router firmware. So, it makes sense to upgrade to the latest firmware of your wireless router. Usually, the network dashboard of your wireless router will have the direct option for updating the firmware. By the way, if you like to take some risk, you should try installing a third-party firmware in your Wi-Fi router. This way, you can get better protection and a lot of additional features. For instance, with the use of custom firmware on your router, you can adjust the power output. That is, you can limit the range and allow one device only if it’s in a particular range. Updated firmware can protect you from different malware too.

#5 — Change Your Network SSID

SSID is the technical term for the name of your wireless network. Depending on the brand of router, the SSID may be different. In most cases, it’s the brand name as well. So, one of the best method to protect your Wi-Fi network is to change the SSID into a not-easily-guessed name. If you use a name that’s secretive, you can only distinguish it from the rest. This is a good thing to prevent others from recognizing your network from the huge list, especially if there are many Wi-Fi networks in your area.

Verdict

So, here are some cool ways to secure wireless router from hacking and other issues. Ideal security is more or less an always-celebrated myth, but you can definitely have better security. Doesn’t that make sense? We hope you agree with the above tips and on the top of that we recommend to keep your system clean and attack free with the help of premium antivirus solutions.