For this year 2020, it has become popular to work remotely. COVID-19 is the main reason why many business owners have decided to enable remote work to maintain their company’s productivity. This drastic change has promoted the capability of personnel and the reorganization of the companies, having to lead their employees with new techniques to facilitate remote communication.

If you are an employee who works remotely or expecting to start working remotely, you should know that having a secure connection is essential. If you are working with classified information, having a secure wireless connection protects not only your company information but also your personal information as well. Some organizations offer secure connections so you can work from home, but if you don’t have one, here are some actions you can take  to protect your personal and work information when you are using a wireless connection.

Make Your Network Invisible

Wireless access points can publish their presence to wireless-enabled computers as «identifier broadcasting.» In certain circumstances, identifier broadcasting is desirable. To make your network connection secure and invisible to others, see your access point’s user manual for disabling identifier broadcasting.

Rename Your Wireless Network

Many wireless access point devices come with a predetermined name or «service set identifier.» Default names managed by various manufacturers are generally known and can be used to gain unauthorized access to your wireless network. When you rename your network, you should select a name that will not be easily guessed by other users.

Encrypt Your Network Traffic

Your wireless device should allow you to encrypt and secure the traffic passing between the device and your computers. By encrypting wireless traffic, you are changing it to a code that can only be interpreted by computers with the exact key to that code.

Change Your Administrator Password

Your wireless access point device comes with a predetermined default password. Because default passwords for various manufacturers are widely known, anyone can get unauthorized access to your wireless network.

Always change your administrator password to one that is difficult to guess that includes characters, and do not provide any personal information. If your wireless network does not have a default password, be sure to create one and use it to protect your device.

Be Cautious with “File Sharing”

If you do not require to share files over your network, you should disable this option on your computer. If you are going to share any information, be sure to protect it with a strong password as well, with characters (such #, %, &) and never open an entire hard drive for file sharing.

Keep Your Access Point Software Up to Date

Eventually, the manufacturers of your wireless access point will release updates to the device software or patches to fix bugs. Remember to check the manufacturer’s web site frequently for any updates or patches for your device’s software.

By taking the following actions, you can better secure your wireless home network against threats.