Today’s personal and business worlds are full of technology. That’s a great thing, but it also means you and your business are readily available to cyber attackers who would love to access your information. The first line of defense against unwanted visitors in your digital world is a secure WiFi network.
Don’t leave your WiFi network unsecured
Almost every business owner leaves the key to the front door to their business under the mat … metaphorically speaking. They allow easy access to the business’s digital assets through WiFi. Specifically, guest WiFi networks are the easiest way in.
I see this amateur mistake every single week. People will make a wireless guest network and put it on the same physical network as their protected staff network. This is so crazy, but it happens all the time.
I recently went to help a company who had a staff and guest WiFi network that they thought were secure. I looked at their network and told them they needed to make some security changes.
Among other things, they had to secure their guest network. They didn’t believe me. So, to prove my point, I took them out to my car in the parking lot. Then, I pulled out my laptop and accessed their guest WiFi network. To their horror, I then pulled up a directory listing on their company server, and grabbed their company QuickBooks file in under 2 minutes.
Here’s the bottom line: the Service Set Identifier, or SSID, has to actually be on a separate network with the correct firewall rules and protection to keep guests out of the corporate network. It is kind of the point of having a guest WiFi network.
Go the extra mile with a strong WiFi password
Making your guest or staff networks have a password is a great start toward information and network security. But, it doesn’t do any good if it is so insecure that you can guess or brute force your way in.
For one company I helped a long time ago, the owner drove a Land Rover. What was the WiFi password? LandRover. I have also seen WiFi passwords permanently written on whiteboards or even printed and framed. Treat your WiFi password as sacred as the physical keys to the front door and make it as hard as possible to guess.
Do you need help learning how to create a secure password? Check out my favorite tip here.
WiFi network security tips to remember
Tip for today: Separate SSID is not necessarily a separate network. Make your guest WiFi network password protected, on a separate network, and firewall isolated from the main company network. Do WiFi right or just don’t do it.
Also, don’t give out your staff WiFi password to anyone who isn’t on your payroll or under your legal responsibility umbrella. It is also important to change the password every time there is a staff changeover.
Bonus tip: It is not difficult to brute force passwords for WiFi networks. Make the password long and strong with WPA2 encryption. (Or, even better, use RADIUS credentials if you can set that up.)
Are you ready to fully protect your business from unauthorized digital access? Contact us now to see how we can help you with information security. We would rather see your name on our client list than on the news as the latest victim!
