On my average daily dog-walk 50% of the homes I walk past have un-secured wireless, so in order to help you not be one of these statistics I’ve shared the two very simple steps below to help make your network more secure.

First, log onto your wireless router, most home routers will be on the default IP address of http://192.168.0.1 with username ‘admin’ and password ‘admin’ or ‘password’ unless you have changed it. If you have a managed router from O2, BT, Talk-Talk, Sky, etc then this will be written on the bottom of the wireless router or your ISP would have sent you a letter / email with these details.

2 very simple and easy steps to secure your wireless:
1. Encrypt it – Best to use WPA or WPA2 Encryption – but something is better than nothing!
2. Hide your SSID – this broadcasts your wireless identity, so if its hidden its less likely to be found.

2 very simple ways to keep your computer safe:
1. Turn on automatic updates – the updates include security updates and a fully up-to-date computer is less vulnerable to malicious exploitation.
2. Keep your Anti-Virus definitions up-to-date.

A few hints and tips for the more advanced:
These get more advance as we go on – nothing stopping most people implementing the first one or two.
1. Change the router default password – most are set to “password” or “admin”
2. Introduce MAC address control to authorise wireless clients
3. Change your wireless channel to one not being used by all of your neighbours – most wireless routers have a built-in site-survey tool – changing the channel will stop any interference.
4. Run multiple SSID’s if supported for your own / guest networks (also consider VLANs)
5. Change your network range and IP scope – everyone uses the default 192.168.0.0/16 subnet – consider 172.16.0.0/16 or 10.0.0.0/16 – advance users only.

MY FINAL TIP:
If you are worried about your wireless network and would like it more secure – then pay a local, trusted computer professional to do it for you – an hour of their time will be well worth the investment.

A great consumer product and it sounds very promising – but as an IT professional I worry about mixing business and consumer users on the same network – it’s got security, support and reliability risks written all over it!

Being a wireless (shared) network, I must admit would be reserved in joining my own home network to it, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t even contemplate joining any business-related infrastructure into such a network due to the following unanswered questions and risks:

1. Wireless security – what level of encryption security is being used – there is no mention on their website.
2. Network segmentation – are business and domestic traffic networks kept separate for security – if not, they should be!
3. Reliability – What are the stats here, I appreciate that ADSL doesn’t truly have an SLA, but most businesses ISP’s will give 99.5% uptime dependant on the access solution and provide failover solutions.
4. Throughput – wireless is a shared medium which is very susceptible to interference – it’s never as good as a piece of wire – but some live ‘real-life’ statistics wouldn’t go a miss.
5. IP & DNS restrictions – businesses like fixed IP addresses and DNS they can change – so they can communicate with the outside world (Mail, VPN, FTP, etc).
6. Support – Connectivity providers will need to provide reliably 24/7/365 service for business customers – the internet is now mission critical and businesses can’t afford to be without it.

Maybe Signal wish to think a little more on their “Office User Package” which is targeted at small or medium sized companies (most people define SME as 1-250 employees) – or drop it completely, concentrate on the domestic market where they are positioned quite well and let dedicated business ISP’s service corporate networks.

Why comply – its a legal requirement
Keeping the information you have about your customers secure will help protect your and their information. It could also protect you against claims for damages

Good business sense
Sending out a mailing from incorrect or out-of-date records could not only annoy your customers but also wastes your time and money

Good information handling can improve your business’s reputation by increasing customer and employee confidence in you

The eight data protection principles of good information handling say that personal information
must be:

• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for specified purposes
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with the rights of the individual
• Kept secure
• Not transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area unless the information is adequately protected.

Its very easy to adhere to these basic principles if you secure your data by:

Physical Security – Ensure good secure locations for your IT equipment and secure your building.
Passwords – Long, strong, with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols, etc – e.g. P@5sw0rd instead of password.
Software Security – Keep your operating system (Windows) and applications are all patched and up to date.
Gateway Security – This means Firewall – get a good one to keep the badies out – I recommend SonicWALL
Secure Wireless – Do you need it? If so use strong WPA2 encryption, hide the SSID, lock it down.
Email Compliance – Filter and check emails – ensure no-one is sending out secure information.
Restrict Access & Information – Limit peoples access to information – if they can’t see it they can’t leak it!
Backup & Restore – Ensure you securely back your data regally up and you can recover it – don’t leave your backups in an unsecured location!
Encryption – If you have a laptop its highly stealable and you’re also likely to leave it on a train my mistake (this happens to Government and the public sector all the time), so encrypt it!

And after all this, if you are in doubt, speak to some experts.