Faster Internet connections are driving more home users in India to deploy Internet-connected devices at home. At the same time, connectivity is enabling more employees to work remotely from home. While connected devices at home provide greater convenience and enable faster communication, “home networks” can become easy targets for cybercriminals, cautions Fortinet, a global leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions.
“Recent IoT-based attacks have revealed the sheer volume and ease by which billions of connected devices can be weaponized and used to disrupt the digital economies of entire countries and millions of users. These issues are compounded by the lack of basic security features and management capabilities in many IoT devices,” said Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice-President, India & SAARC, Fortinet.
Personal, financial and medical information, as well as work assets are all at risk from increasingly sophisticated malware and financially motivated cybercriminals.
According to market research firm IDC, there will be nearly nine billion connected devices across Asia-Pacific by 2020. Connected devices on the home network range from smart TVs, entertainment and gaming systems, smart refrigerators, to online home security systems. Many home networks also include wireless medical devices, and tools designed to track and monitor children or elderly family members. All of these devices are connected to the Internet through a home Wi-Fi system, or increasingly, a Home Area Network (HAN) combined with Network-Attached Storage (NAS) and cloud-based applications that are accessible from any device in any location.
Fortinet proposes three top strategies and techniques for home users to secure their increasingly complex and sophisticated home networks:
1. Learn
There are a number of security tools specifically designed for the home which can identify devices looking to connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi network. Many of them can be easily configured to provide them with access to the guest network, while restricting and monitoring the kind of traffic they are generating.
2. Segment
Home owners can apply a simple network segmentation strategy in order to protect their resources.
** Buy separate wireless access points to separate things like gaming systems and IoT devices from PCs and laptops.
** Set up a wireless guest network for visitors or new devices. Most access points allow users to restrict access, set up things like firewalls, and monitor guest behaviour.
** Consider purchasing a separate, inexpensive device that is only used for sensitive tasks like online banking. Users could also set up a separate virtual device on their laptop or PC for banking online to protect their critical resources.
** Keep work and personal devices separated. Set up a separate connection for work, only connect through a VPN tunnel, and consider encrypting sensitive data travelling back and forth between home and corporate networks.
3. Protect
Home networks and devices tend to become infected because security is notoriously lax. Here are a few security tips for the home network:
** Keep a list of all the devices and critical applications on your network, including the manufacturer. Set up a weekly routine to check for updates for physical and virtual devices, operating systems, applications, and browsers.
** Get antivirus and anti-malware software, keep it updated, and run it regularly. Remember that no software is 100% effective, so set up a regular schedule, say once a month, where you use a second or third security solution to scan your device or network. Many solutions provide a free online version or let you run a free demo for a period of time.
** Get a firewall. Most home security packages include a firewall option. Turn it on. Even the default settings are better than doing nothing.
** Use good password hygiene. Change your passwords every three to six months. Use as password manager to store passwords. Use different passwords for different kinds of things. Do not mix your personal and work passwords.
** Password managers have been developed to help manage all your passwords, and all you need to keep track of is a single master password. This technology will also automatically create strong random passwords for each application you need to access, and store them in an encrypted format.
“Given the rate at which technology is changing, users can no longer afford to simply load an antivirus tool onto their laptop and think they are going to be protected. As users begin to use and interconnect more and more devices, and blend their personal, social, and work lives, security is increasingly important,” said Rajesh Maurya. “It is critical that users begin to develop a strategy now for learning, segmenting, and protecting their network, resources, data, and privacy.”
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