Kinyarwanda version

Once you invest in a wireless router at home, every member of the family will have access to it through laptops, PCs, cell phones tablets, and other devices.

If not protected adequately, a small vulnerability in the home wireless network can give a malicious actor access to almost all the smart devices that access your home WI-FI.

Consider the following best practices to help secure your smart devices.

Change the default username (SSID) of your wireless router

Most wireless routers come pre-set with a default username such as ‘admin’.  However, default credentials such as these are easy to guess by hackers, especially if they can identify who the manufacturer is. Change your Wi-Fi router username so that you use a unique option that does not include any personal identifiers, therefore not revealing any personal information associated with your network.

Use strong and unique passwords

Change the default password for your Wi-Fi router and ensure that the password is strong and unique. Create a WI-FI password that has at least 10 characters, includes upper-case and lower-case letters and includes numbers and symbols.

Keep your router & IoT devices firmware up to date

As established in our previous story on how to update your device, it is a best practice to keep your software up to date – and this also includes your router & IoT devices firmware. Outdated firmware will have vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.

Some routers & IoT devices allow users to check the device system to see if firmware updates are available, and a few may offer automatic updates. You can also check the vendor’s support website to see if updates for your router model are available and can be implemented.

If available, start using guest networks.

Some wireless routers allow you to create a guest network for visitors who want to use your Wi-Fi, and this is a great way to prohibit access to the main network or your email and other accounts.

It is also beneficial to set up a guest network specifically for your smart devices, as this means that even if a hacker compromises one of your devices, they will be limited to your guest network.

Enable wireless network encryption

Wireless network encryption scrambles your data or the contents of a message so that it cannot be deciphered by malicious actors. Currently, WPA2 is the most commonly used encryption protocol.  Older protocols like WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) & WPA (Wireless Application Protocol) are now considered weak encryption protocols, as they have many vulnerabilities.

It is advised that Wi-Fi networks use WPA2 on personal settings, as it is secure and most commonly used. If your smart devices can support WPA3, this option is preferable as it provides the most current wireless network protection.

Disable features you may not need

When managing your IoT devices, make sure you are aware of all of the features they offer, as some of these can be enabled by default. If you find certain features like remote access or voice control enabled and you don’t need them, disable them so that you reduce the risk of leaving some of these features open by mistake.