I have Wi-Fi at home as I’m sure many of you do as well but
how secure is your Wi-Fi? In this mod we
learned about how easily accessible personal information is if you don’t have
the proper security settings! To be honest I knew that for personal Wi-Fi you
should have it password protected to keep unwanted guess from using the data
you pay for. What I didn’t know was that
you should change the name of your router, use WPA (not WEP if possible) and
unplug the router when not in use.
My Settings
I was challenged to find my SSID information on my personal
computer to see how secure my Wi-Fi really is. Here it is:
What do you think? Do you think this is set to maximize my security? After what I have learned I would say NO! I didn't change the SSID of my router and by not doing this it could lead hackers to think that I have minimal security and possible even no password. While this is not true, I do have my WI-Fi password protected, it's even better to change the name so I don't lead the hackers to think I am an easy target. After learning this I have since changed my SSID:
Along with changing your SSID you should turn on WPA, have a strong password, and change the username so a hacker can't easily break in. When it comes to encryption WPA is the most secure, check out this chart (from this website) I found that describes the difference and what you should be using:
Where do you shop?
If you ask me WEP should not even be an option anymore, what good is it if it's easily hacked into? Remember the big TJ Maxx heist, if not you should definitely read about it, this is the perfect example of why WEP is no good. According to the article, the company used WEP and didn't want to upgrade their systems to WPA because it was too expensive. This was a terrible idea because their network was hacked into and tons of customers information was accessed. This type of break in is something shoppers never want to hear and makes them loose trust in companies and then they take their business somewhere else. Many companies do have the correct security measures in place to keep your information safe. I love to shop online and one of my favorite websites is amazon and in their privacy policy they state :
- " We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.
- We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing.
- It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer. Click here for more information on how to sign off "
Be sure that the places you shop at whether in store or online have a good security system in place to make sure your information is not stolen! Read privacy policies, check their network settings for WPA to make sure they have the highest encryption protection and if you don;'t get that warm fuzzy feeling find out before you give out your information, you won't regret it!
