If someone were to ask you how secure your home network is, what would you say? In the case of most people they will either have no idea what to say in response to this question, or the answer is that they just don’t have any. The brilliant Bharat Bhise HNA is a cybersecurity expert and he and I were speaking last week about the reasons behind not enough people secure their homes in this way, we have put it down to both education and the assumption that the web provider or router supplier, will have already got that covered. The truth is that education is required because nobody is gong to portent you other than yourself, and here is why it is so important.
They Know
Hackers and cybercriminals know that the majority of people have poor quality home network security, or no-one at all. This is why phishing scams, ransomware, hacks and breaches are on the rise, because we are making it easy for them. Once more and more people get wise to this and start protecting themselves against such attacks, they will begin to slow down and be nullified, but not until we start protecting ourselves.
Personal and Confidential Information
There are two main reasons for hacks on residential properties or for phishing scams, the first is to steal personal information, the second is to obtain details which can support financial theft such as credit card fraud. Just think about how much information you have on your computers and tablets, or stored in your cloud. Think about how easily it would be for someone to steal your identity if they could get their hands on that information, perhaps they will even find personal information about your history and your family, to help make their falsification more realistic. We use our gadgets and network for just about everything that we do and someone gaining access to that is tantamount to them walking in our homes and going through all of our drawers and closets.
Internet of Things
You may think that because you have a firewall on your laptop or virus protection that you will be immune to an attack, which would have been true 20 years ago. These days however it is not just our phones and computers which are connected up to our internet, but more and more smart products and appliances also use this network. Even if you laptop is packed to the hilt with security, the same cannot be said about the appliances which you have bought from 3rd party companies that are controlled remotely. That smart heating system which you have may just have a security gap in it, and through that your nature network could be hacked if somebody wanted to. Protecting the network as a whole is the smartest way to protect your home and your information from anyone who may have criminal intentions.
Just like you protect your home with alarms and cameras, you should do so with your home network.