It’s highly confusing for people to understand and harder to digest that their home devices are not a single device but actually a part of a network. Network, in general, is a combination of many devices connected to one router.
The most common reaction that users have is that they own just 1 laptop or two. However, it’s not just a laptop or a computer that can be hacked. Every device that’s connected to the internet via the router is hackable. In fact, the simple fact is that every device that’s connected to the web is a computer on its own. Hence, it has bugs that are security vulnerabilities that hackers target in general.
The three parts that contain bugs and expose devices to hackers are software apps, operating systems, and firmware. If the bugs in either of these three aren’t patched, the systems can be hacked. The systems that are a part of a home network can be classified in 6 categories.
- Devices like router and extenders.
- Laptops and desktops.
- Mobile devices.
- Output devices like printers.
- Gaming stations.
- Smart devices that include smart TVs and smart refrigerators.
Needless to say, so many devices make a network and a network has to be secured. The different ways in which you can protect your house network are as follows.
Patching the Router
Router has to be the most secured device of the house network since it’s the gateway to the internet. If a hacker is able infect the router with a malware, every system on that router will be compromised. Some of the ways in which a router can be protected are listed below.
- Check the router for updates manually if your router is an old one.
- Keep installing the updates and if the service provider doesn’t patch the router frequently, change to another service provider.
- Password Protecting all Devices
First, the router should have a very very strong password. Second, every other device in the house network should have their own unique password. Don’t use the same password and don’t use an old password. If you can’t find a strong password, use a password manager app that has two benefits.
- It secures all the passwords at one place and since it’s encrypted, it’s very hard to breach the security.
- A password manager app can generate passwords too. Use those suggestions and complicate them further by using a combination of symbols wherever possible.
In a nutshell, you can always protect the home network by being smart and following a few basic techniques that’ll strengthen the backdoor password for all devices at home.
