Wireless networks has never been taken seriously because we have always been using wired networks mostly till his date. wireless networks can be easily exploited by hackers as compared to any wired network and reason is simple ,our wireless technology can be accessed by anyone who has a device with wireless capabilities and then can abuse the information stored on network, but when it’s a wired network, then the person has to come down physically and connect to that network. Although , hackers know the tricks of penetrating in those networks , you won’t be targeted easily.
So, there are the many important of wireless security in day to day life. Some of them are:
- It is mainly useful in online banking services. while we use online banking , there may be a chance to leave lot of traces which can reveal lots of account related information. And same goes in online shopping too.
- Your internet connection may be misused by many other people mainly by hackers , and they increase the cost of bandwidth and you may end up paying huge amount bills. There can be case where nasty people may try to send your internet connection to send spam and then you’ll be held liable for that.
So to secure home wireless network, there are few things to do to ensure that you ll not give easy access to those who are eyeing on free internet connection or some important information stored in your computer.
- Changing the SSID: SSID [ A service set identifier , or SSID , is a name used to identify the particular 802.11 wireless LANs to which a user wants to attach.] is a case sensitive name used to identify a wireless network and it has be used by each and every device in that network. By default, it is in manufacturer name but it is advisable to change that and make sure you don’t change it to anything identifiable: e.g.your name, address ,etc.
- Use WPA OR WPA 2: when it comes to security in wireless then prefer to use WPA or WPA 2 over WEP .WEP is vey easy to break as compared to WPA or WPA 2. WEP is older and WAP is newer and WAP2 is the newest.
- Use a strong and long key : with WPA , you have to specify a pre- shared key and which acts as a password to your network.
So it is important to secure wireless network than using it.