How to Protect Your Home Router from Attacks

Protecting everything at your home is essential to your daily life at this point.  You are now using a router in your home for everything from smart devices (ipads, iphones, android devices), printers and workstations. Now is the time to follow these simple instructions.

Choosing a router

You get what you paid for.  Simple term for simple things, you go cheap and you can expect anybody on the outside to attack your internal structure.  Keep in mind you want a solid piece of equipment that provides you with the utmost security and closing down users from the outside.

Change the default admin password

Everybody makes the mistake of not changing a default password when installing a new router.  Big mistake.  Keeping the default password simply allows outside attackers to log into your router and inflect damage.  Choose a strong password and, if given the option, also change the username for the default administrative account.

Secure the administrative interface

Many routers allow users to expose the admin interface to the internet for remote administration and some older devices even have it configured this way by default. This is a very bad idea even if the admin password is changed, because many of the vulnerabilities found in routers are located in their web-based management interfaces.

 

Shutting down services not needed

Services like Telnet and SSH (Secure Shell) that provide command-line access to devices should never be exposed to the internet and should also be disabled on the local network unless they’re actually needed. UPnP service should never be exposed to the internet as well.  In simple terms, keep only the services you need open otherwise close them down.

Secure, Secure and Secure more

Make sure you set up your router with a robust password that is difficult to crack but easy enough for you to remember.  Use alphanumeric characters as well as special characters and finally upper and lower case mix.  If you do not need the guest account to be open then close it.

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