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How to secure your router and home network

The internet router is an essential electronic device in everyone’s home. It connects and holds other devices together and outside the world. It is vital to protect the router from the attackers as they make their way to your devices through it.

Cybercriminals and state-sponsored attackers have used various botnets to hack the routers to launch an attack against business and organization. Small businesses and consumers are usually insecure with default configurations like un-documents backdoor accounts expose legacy services and have firmware that is riddled with fundamental flaws. Some primary problems with a router cannot be fixed, but given are some tips one can use to protect their devices.

Avoid using routers supplied by ISPs 

The routers sold by manufacturers to consumers are less secure. Very few of them have hard-coded remote support credentials or protocols–TRO69- that users can’t change. Don’t use a modem that is supplied by your ISP; if it forces you to use it, then it is vital to configure it in bridge mode and install your router to secure your network.

Change the default admin password

To secure your router, it is vital to change the default administrator password and SSID name. Cybercriminals use different techniques to break such publicly known credentials easily. One needs to change the password after buying it. The default password is available on its bottom sticker or set-up guide. The very first thing one should do is to change the password and keep a strong password.

Turn on HTTPS access to the router interface if available

To keep your router secure, it is good to log out after the management task is done. Before working with the router, one should use the browsers in incognito and private mode, it will not allow the browser to save the router’s username and password.

Use a security-focused DNS service provider

When you buy a router, it will configure to forward Domain Name System (DNS) requests to your ISP. Your ISP will maintain a secure DNS lookup service and locate the IP address of the website you want to visit and is also known as the internet phone book. A cybercriminal uses it to target users to malicious websites, which is hard to identify. Well-known companies like Google, and Cloudflare, OpenDNS (Cisco) offer publicly available DNS resolvers that have encrypted versions.