15 Ways To Secure Your Business WiFi Network — DZone Security
Configuring your wireless network is one of the essential tasks to upkeep the security of your corporate wireless network.
At least among IT professionals, it is not a big secret how important it is for the Wi-Fi networks to be safe for any business. You can do a quick search on Google or skim through the social media or news feed to read about it. You will indeed read some interesting content about how vulnerable wireless networks are to attacks and data stealing.
Reality to Confront
Don’t just live with the fact that it still hasn’t happened to your business. That doesn’t mean it will never happen (until you have secured your wireless network). The complacency and denial can make your business wifi network security an accident waiting to happen. So, unless you have decided to roll back your business to the 80s or 90s, you can’t bury your head in the sand about the vulnerabilities waiting to make your wifi network weaker.
In this post, you will be learning about — how to secure your business wifi network dramatically and how that is going to affect your valuable business.
Just watch this video to know about the most significant data breaches that happened in April 2021:
15 Ways to Lock Down Your Company’s Wireless Network (To Keep Attackers at Bay)!
Try to implement them all to ensure your business enjoys a highly secure wireless network.
1. Move Your Router to a Physically Secure Location
Before moving on to more sophisticated methods to secure your business’s WiFi network, try opting for simpler things like moving the router to a more secure place with restricted access. It could be a safe place like a locked cabinet or an office room that is always locked. If you are willing to make it even more secure, try video surveillance options to monitor the router all the time. You must even ensure investing in highly reliable business internet solutions to keep such incidents at bay.
2. Isolate Guests to Their Own Subnet
You should never use guest networks for personal work or when dealing with sensitive data or information. Usually, guest/public networks have null security, which means it could be dangerous for your personal information. In other words, least safe to use for your sensitive business data.
For your guests, it is advisable to keep a separate network and make sure you are using a person and are highly secured for your business. Invest in TLS, MDM enrollment, and WPS2 to experience maximum security for your business’s devices. Create and implement subnets for internal WiFi and guest WiFi networks for sharing minimized congestion, better network organization, and seamless tracking and preventing unwanted activities in the network.
3. Unique SSID Name and Password are Needed
Hackers, in no time, can get into your system if you use the default Service Set identified (SSID) name and password. So the first tip to make it secure is to hide the SSID name or change it along with a solid password to complete your network.
Don’t use common SSID names (e.g., admin), as hackers are aware of this trend. It will take them no time to enter that network without doing much. Ensure the password includes numerical, special characters, alphabetic, uppercase, and lowercase to make it stranger and challenging for the attackers to crack.
4. Keep Your Software and Firmware Updated
Ensure you are frequently updating your software and other network device’s firmware with the latest security patches. WiFi networks are highly vulnerable to attackers, so it becomes imperative for your business to update them regularly. These fixes will certainly cure specific weaknesses in the network, which could otherwise make your network weaker and insecure. Hence, it would be wise to invest in highly secure and high-end firmware and software and keep it updated.
5. Re-Using Passwords for WiFi is Highly Not Recommended
A weak password or repeatedly using the same password for your wireless network is highly risky. Hackers leverage the power of weak passwords to enter your business network to make the situation worse for you. It is only a matter of minutes for attackers to get into your system for stealing your sensitive business information. First, hackers need a handshake from a device connected with WiFi with a poor password. After that, they can misuse the device along with the data in every possible way they can.
Never re-use your WiFi password. Instead, make it strong — by making it more unique and challenging to guess. Also, please don’t use your WiFi password on some other accounts or devices to keep it away from breaches. Hackers know people usually love to copy their favorite strong password and use it everywhere, on all accounts and devices. Hence, they end up making their networks more vulnerable to attacks.
6. Turn Off WiFi Protected Setup
WPS or WiFi protected setup is specially designed to pair a device with an encrypted network with the push of a button. The only issue with WIFI Protected Setup is that anyone can do that to access your router in a moment. It is that easy for anyone to gain a foothold in your WiFi network.
So, apart from placing your WiFi in a secured locked room, it is also essential to turn off this function so that you can make it completely secure for your entire business.
7. Encrypt Your Local Traffic With VPN
Traffic on a local network can easily be spied on even if the hackers don’t even have the password. They need to record the traffic and decrypt it after knowing the password later on. HTTPS has made everything safer on the internet.
However, VPNs can easily discourage snooping on the traffic. VPNs allow encrypting the local traffic to secure information, opening the door to a phishing attack. Furthermore, it is difficult for the attackers to identify what the target is doing on the internet when VPN is used. VPN even makes it challenging for hackers to redirect users to malicious sites, which is a good sign for any business.
It is highly recommended to invest in a reliable and high-end VPN that offers multiple layers of protection to avoid easily getting preyed on. If you research reliable VPNs in the market with utmost safety, you surely will get some. So make sure to invest in it after thorough market research for the best outcomes. After all, your business’s security is concerned, and you only need the best to keep it safe from attackers.
8. Protect Systems that Access your WiFI Network
There is the slightest possibility of hackers infiltrating your wireless network. However, highly secure systems can save your sensitive data and information from being stolen. Therefore, it is recommended to use anti-malware software on every computer to access your business WiFi network. Additionally, it is essential to keep an eye on the ‘updates’ of your business’s apps and operating systems. That will minimize the bugs and security vulnerabilities.
9. Secure Your Ethernet Ports
Suitable for your WiFi business network if you have already protected the remote login features of your WiFi network. It is even essential to secure the ethernet ports. If you do not secure these ports, you will probably end up having an insecure network. For example, let’s suppose that your WiFi network won’t be as protected as it should if someone plugs their AP in the port.
Also, when someone plugs in the port, they are most likely to get complete access to your WiFi network. Hence, it is essential to secure your ethernet ports and keep them away from the customer’s access. It is recommended that you set it up in some hidden place securely.
Does your office offer free WiFi to guests or customers, or anyone else?
Uh Uh! It is not the most secure way to protect your WiFi network.
Keeping different routers for business and customers is highly recommended for companies who dramatically want to secure their WiFi network.
10. WiFi Signals Needs to Be Contained
Is it possible for your business to completely block the incoming and outgoing radio signals at the exteriors of your building? If you can do that, the WiFi attackers or eavesdropping in the parking lot can be completely avoided. That is one way to secure your highly WiFi network and make your business more secure than ever before. However, you would say this is not so practical.
Hence, you can always reduce signal leakage. Keep the signals contained in a controlled area between relocating APs and tuning down their power levels.
11. Install Web Application Firewall
Web Application Firewall or WAF helps protect your customers’ sensitive and critical information who buy your services and products online. The customer’s information and data are highly protected when you install WAF. In addition, all necessary information is highly secured against attacks by hackers.
12. Utilize SSL Certificates
When customers are making transactions online on your website, it is essential to utilize SSL certificates to ensure that your website is highly secure for yourself and your customers. Secure Socket Layer certificate allows an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. Hence, entirely secure for both your business and your customers.
13. Try MAC Address Filtering
Did you know that hackers can easily spoof the MAC addresses of their network adapters? If you use MAC address filtering, you can enjoy another layer of security, making your business more reliable and secure. Also, it is not a big task to do so; all you need is some overhead to enter the addresses of all your devices and systems.
14. Secure NAS Devices and Shared Folders
It is important to control the exact resources, files, and folders that your employees can access. You will also need to verify the folder sharing permissions. Do you know who all can access your files, folders, and resources? If not, it is time to keep a check on that. Also, what are the NTFS permissions of your folders and files?
Moreover, configure sharing settings for network devices or storage of all network-attached devices. You can easily keep a check on who all are accessing your critical information, folders, and files if you are configuring sharing settings.
15. Connecting to Other Networks is Not a Good Idea
Businesses often need to share files and information from one computer to another. However, we recommend not to use any other network to share any information about the business. Instead, keep all systems connected to just one official WiFi network securely placed in one location, most probably in a locked room.
Check all systems and devices frequently and ensure they aren’t set to auto-connect to an available network. This one check on devices will ensure your employee’s devices are not automatically connected to foreign networks.
WiFi is Safer When Used With Basic Precautions
Nowadays, internet connection is vital for businesses, and so is to keep it secure from hackers. In addition, it is essential to keep critical information and customer data safe when doing business.
Related Read: Dedicated vs. Shared Internet [What’s Best for Your Organization?]
Otherwise, You can hurt the reputation of your business. So, you need to follow a few basic rules if you want to keep your WiFi network highly secure and your business running smoothly.
Follow all these methods altogether or start step-by-step; eventually, you will be making your WiFi network more secure and more robust. We understand that no one wants to be an easy target for the attackers. So secure your WiFi network right away. You can start with:
- Physically securing your devices and router.
- Change default configurations and passwords of the router.
- Update firewall and firmware.
- Limit access to your information, files, folders, and even WiFi network.
