Tips for Securing the Vulnerable Network Connectivity at Our Home

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Look around your home and you will find it to be no different than a small office. There are tons of devices connected at our home to different networks. There are network equipments, storage devices and wireless network printers. WIFI is the thing, which has made your home entertainment devices to be connected to the internet. You will barely come across an electronic device like a Blu-ray, DVD, or TV without WIFI connectivity. The same is applicable for gaming devices. Almost each of the gaming devices and consoles being released in the market today need online connectivity.

We at Jammer Store love the idea behind modifying the old ideology using new and innovative technology to improve functionality. I myself have a lot of old computers at my home, which are connected to the internet. By old, I mean retro old ones, like Amiga 500, Atari Computers and Commodore 64. I am also a fan of changing the existing technology and its functionality by incorporating new technology.

There is no doubt that where there is great power, there are many responsibilities. However, this idea is something that is missing from the creation of the current lot of vendors, which are providing consumer products. They are not being extra cautious while adding the new functionality an existing product. I went about researching some of the devices by myself. I looked at some of the devices, which were connected with the home network. The results shocked me completely. Within a few minutes, I compromised many of the devices. They were turned into zombie machines. All the securities were bypassed and there were access, easily made to files on specific storage devices, which I previously had no authority to access.

There are many, who still believe that security threats and attacks are quite difficult to execute. They feel that to have such threats, there is a need for someone to sit or be a part of the same network on which your device sits. However, this is a completely incorrect perception. You can easily come across simple yet effect methods for compromising the network, where different devices are connected, even if there is a strong farewell in the network.

To take care of this situation, we must take action right this moment. It is not a problem, which will take place in the future. Rather, it exists at this very moment. There are cybercriminals all over the internet, who are looking to exploit the weaknesses at this moment. The industry, at the same time, is not doing much to take care of this situation.

It is not just a simple technical glitch, which can be fixed using a small patch. In most cases, consumers are quite poor in understanding the manner in which such network-connected devices need to be installed. Each of the devices has their own usage and because of which they must be provided with separate network configuration. Being quite lazy by nature, we do not go through the instructions and just simply connect these devices to our network. Once the task is complete, we feel that the installation has been completed.

In such a situation, the problem is that we are using the same network configuration for all the electronic devices. This means that we are having Blu-Ray player and TV as well as network storage devices having same configuration as our laptop, which is being used for conducting financial transactions or official tasks with sensitive information.

In this case, vendors should also come up and take more responsibility, whenever they are shipping consumer devices. Most of us do not understand that support lifecycle associated to such devices are for only 6 months. Once the tenure is complete, we are not going to receive more support or updates for the device from the vendors, as they are looking to offer support for the new upcoming products. This problem has actually become a threat now. Still, there are many, who feel that it is always some other people, who are going to get infected with spam or who are going to get their identity or credit card information stolen. You need to wake up right away and take an action, as all of that is happening right now.

Check out the below examples and you will realize right away:

One of the leading ISPs from Sweden had their customers receiving vulnerable routers with the ISP. This allowed attackers for remotely compromising the connected devices. The account, generally, had a weak password and each of the devices connected to the same account had a similar password. Again, there was another case of money getting stolen from customers of 5 popular Polish banks. This happened when cybercriminals were able to change the setting of susceptible SOHO routers for redirecting users to fake bank sites. Psyb0T (a malware) targeted SOHO routers was able to exploit weaknesses in software. It was also able to get hold of week password in the admin interface, which turned the device into zombie in botnet. BlackEnergy2 (another malware) was responsible for implementing additional modules. It was designed for running on the Internet-of-Things devices. It performed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, sniffed network traffic and stole passwords. Flasher (another Malware) was able to replace the firmware on the SOHO devices with modified system images. It eavesdrops on the different network activities of the user.

For researcher, it is simple to identify weaknesses in security and inform the vendors about the same. However, it is a difficult task to come up with a solution, which can offer effective result against the same. I worked with Martha and then came up with a small and simple yet useful tips and tricks, which you can apply, if there are network-connected devices at your home. These are only general tips, as it is a complex and difficult task to come up with a single solution, which will work on all the devices, since each of the products appear and look different as well: Change the default password on your device, as attackers try to exploit that.

If it is possible for you, you must update the firmware with their latest versions. In case you are not using the network connectivity on a particular device, it is important for you to turn the same off. If the network connectivity is working, then it is important for you to ensure that you are not having any remote access to the admin interface of your device from the online world. Make use of advanced network segmentation to the connected devices.

Know if your device, like TV, requires any access to the internet. If it does not, then you should switch the unnecessary features off to ensure that there is no unnecessary access of the same network, with which you are sharing your personal information. There are a lot of network-connectivity features in many electronic devices, which increase potential surface for attack on your network. And the worst part is that we are not aware of these features. Thus, it is important to be completely aware of these features and disable the same.

You should read the manual offered with every device carefully. It comes with information related to configuration settings as well as features of the device. Again, you will not come across additional data on your device online. It is important for you to familiarize with the same to make your home network and your personal data secure. You should take each of the steps quite carefully.

Please make use of the support team of the device, generally offered by vendors, in case there is any query in your mind related to the device. Whenever you are buying a consumer product, you are also paying for the associated support. Hence, you should make use of it, as it will offer you significance guidance for the device.

Therefore, take action now, the security of your home is as vulnerable as you let it be. Don’t let cyber-criminals pry into your privacy – Get WI FI Jammers today to secure your home completely.


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