Stop Home Network Hackers: Top 10 Tips to Protect Your Wi-Fi Security

April 7, 2023 Floo

Your home Wi-Fi network might not be as safe as you think. In 2021, internet crime cost Americans more than $6.9 billion. While phishing and scams contributed to the losses, personal data breaches were also significant. In many cases, those personal data breaches could have been prevented by just a little home network security.

The average US household has more than 10 devices connected to its home Wi-Fi network. From laptops and tablets to phones, smartwatches and streaming devices, the number can ramp up quickly, and each is potentially vulnerable to hacking. With so much data stored on those devices — credit card numbers, bank records, login credentials and other personal and private information — you want to ensure you’re protecting yourself from hackers if your network is ever compromised.

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A secure home network will help reduce the risk of getting hacked and having someone access your sensitive information. Not only that, it will keep away unwanted or unauthorized users and devices that would slow down your connection or freeload on the internet service you pay for.

It’s fairly simple to create and maintain a secure home Wi-Fi network. Below, you’ll find 10 tips for securing your network. Some are more effective than others at keeping hackers and freeloaders at bay, but all are useful in their own way. Keep in mind that nothing can guarantee absolute security from hacking attempts, but these tips will make it harder for anyone to compromise your network and data. (For more Wi-Fi tips, check out how to tell if your internet provider is throttling your Wi-Fi and our tips on how to speed up your Wi-Fi connection).

How to secure your home Wi-Fi network

Here are the basics for protecting your home Wi-Fi network. Keep reading for more information on each below.

1. Place your router in a central location.

2. Create a strong Wi-Fi password and change it often.

3. Change the default router login credentials.

4. Turn on firewall and Wi-Fi encryption.

5. Create a guest network.

6. Use a VPN.

7. Keep your router and devices up to date.

8. Disable remote router access.

9. Verify connected devices.

10. Upgrade to a WPA3 router.

Place your router in a central location

Strong network security starts with a smart setup. If possible, place your router at the center of your home. Routers send wireless signals in all directions, so strategically placing your router in a central location will help keep your connection to the confines of your home. As a bonus, it will likely also make for the best connection quality.

For example, if you have internet in an apartment where neighbors are immediately to the left and right of you, placing your router next to a shared wall could send a strong, and tempting, signal

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Wi-Fi Security Tips: 10 Ways to Avoid Home Network Hackers

March 1, 2023 Floo

This story is part of Home Tips, CNET’s collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

Shopping for a faster internet speed?

We’ll send you the fastest internet options, so you don’t have to find them.

How to secure your home Wi-Fi network

Here are the basics for protecting your home Wi-Fi network. Keep reading for more information on each below.

1. Place your router in a central location.

2. Create a strong Wi-Fi password and change it often.

3. Change the default router login credentials.

4. Turn on firewall and Wi-Fi encryption.

5. Create a guest network.

6. Use a VPN.

7. Keep your router and devices up to date.

8. Disable remote router access.

9. Verify connected devices.

10. Upgrade to a WPA3 router.

Place your router in a central location

For example, if you have internet in an apartment where neighbors

… Read More... Read More

Hackers can now consider above your laptop by Microsoft Word

June 18, 2022 Floo

A new zero-working day vulnerability in Microsoft Workplace could most likely enable hackers to just take manage of your personal computer. The vulnerability can be exploited even if you really don’t really open up an contaminated file.

Even though we’re even now waiting for an formal fix, Microsoft has produced a workaround for this exploit, so if you frequently use MS Business office, be sure to look at it out.

Fascinating maldoc was submitted from Belarus. It takes advantage of Term&#39s external connection to load the HTML and then utilizes the &quotms-msdt&quot scheme to execute PowerShell code.https://t.co/hTdAfHOUx3 pic.twitter.com/rVSb02ZTwt

&mdash nao_sec (@nao_sec) May well 27, 2022

The vulnerability has been dubbed Follina by 1 of the researchers who 1st seemed into it — Kevin Beaumont, who also wrote a lengthy put up about it. It very first arrived to light on May possibly 27 as a result of a tweet by nao_sec, although Microsoft allegedly first read of it as early as April. Though no patch has been introduced for it just however, Microsoft’s workaround includes disabling the Microsoft Assist Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), which is how the exploit receives entry into the attacked personal computer.

This exploit has an effect on largely .rtf documents, but other MS Term files can also be impacted. A element in MS Phrase termed Templates allows the program to load and execute code from external resources. Follina depends on this in buy to enter the laptop or computer and then operates a collection of instructions that opens up MSDT. Underneath regular instances, MSDT is a safe and sound device that Microsoft takes advantage of to debug many difficulties for Windows buyers. However, in this situation, it also grants distant entry to your laptop or computer, which can help the exploit consider regulate of it.

In the situation of .rtf documents, the exploit can run even if you don’t open the file. As long as you see it in File Explorer, Follina can be executed. At the time the attacker gains handle of your personal computer through MSDT, it is up to them as much as what they want to do. They may obtain destructive application, leak files, and do fairly much almost everything else.

Beaumont has shared a lot of examples of the way Follina has presently been exploited and discovered in a variety of information. The exploit is remaining made use of for monetary extortion, amid other things. Useless to say — you really don’t want this on your laptop or computer.

What do you do till Microsoft releases a patch?

There are a couple measures you can choose to continue to be secure from the Follina exploit until finally Microsoft alone releases a patch that will deal with this challenge. As issues stand now, the workaround is the official fix, and we do not know for a truth that just about anything else is guaranteed to adhere to.

1st and foremost, check whether or not your edition of Microsoft Office environment could

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The race to save the Internet from quantum hackers

February 9, 2022 Floo

In cybersecurity circles, they call it Q-day: the day when quantum computers will break the Internet.

Almost everything we do online is made possible by the quiet, relentless hum of cryptographic algorithms. These are the systems that scramble data to protect our privacy, establish our identity and secure our payments. And they work well: even with the best supercomputers available today, breaking the codes that the online world currently runs on would be an almost hopeless task.

But machines that will exploit the quirks of quantum physics threaten that entire deal. If they reach their full scale, quantum computers would crack current encryption algorithms exponentially faster than even the best non-quantum machines can. “A real quantum computer would be extremely dangerous,” says Eric Rescorla, chief technology officer of the Firefox browser team at Mozilla in San Francisco, California.

As in a cheesy time-travel trope, the machines that don’t yet exist endanger not only our future communications, but also our current and past ones. Data thieves who eavesdrop on Internet traffic could already be accumulating encrypted data, which they could unlock once quantum computers become available, potentially viewing everything from our medical histories to our old banking records. “Let’s say that a quantum computer is deployed in 2024,” says Rescorla. “Everything you’ve done on the Internet before 2024 will be open for discussion.”

Even the most bullish proponents of quantum computing say we’ll have to wait a while until the machines are powerful enough to crack encryption keys, and many doubt it will happen this decade — if at all.

But the risk is real enough that the Internet is being readied for a makeover, to limit the damage if Q-day happens. That means switching to stronger cryptographic systems, or cryptosystems. Fortunately, decades of research in theoretical computer science has turned up plenty of candidates. These post-quantum algorithms seem impervious to attack: even using mathematical approaches that take quantum computing into account, programmers have not yet found ways to defeat them in a reasonable time.

Which of these algorithms will become standard could depend in large part on a decision soon to be announced by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

In 2015, the US National Security Agency (NSA) announced that it considered current cryptosystems vulnerable, and advised US businesses and the government to replace them. The following year, NIST invited computer scientists globally to submit candidate post-quantum algorithms to a process in which the agency would test their quality, with the help of the entire crypto community. It has since winnowed down its list from 65 to 15. In the next couple of months, it will select a few winners, and then publish official versions of those algorithms. Similar organizations in other countries, from France to China, will make their own announcements.

But that will be only the beginning of a long process of updating the world’s cryptosystems — a change that will affect every aspect of our lives online, although the hope

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Iranian hackers take down servers of Israeli internet hosting company Cyberserve

November 8, 2021 Floo

Hackers, seemingly joined to Iran, mentioned Friday they experienced broken into the servers of Israeli internet hosting corporation Cyberserve, bringing down a variety of commonly applied websites.

The Black Shadow group, which Hebrew-language media studies claimed was Iranian, warned the Israeli company that it was in possession of knowledge that could be leaked. The team has not verified that it is Tehran-backed.

“Hello Once more! We have news for you,” the hackers wrote in a message circulated on social media on Friday night. “You likely could not connect to quite a few websites right now. ‘Cyberserve’ business and their clients [were] strike by us. You may check with what about Details? As generally, we have heaps of it. If you do not want your Info leaked by us, get hold of us shortly.”

Black Shadow stole a vast trove of data from Israeli insurance plan company Shirbit final yr and then sold it on the darkish net when the business refused to shell out a ransom.

Cyberserve’s buyers consist of the Dan and Kavim public transportation providers, the Children’s Museum in Holon, the Pegasus travel enterprise and the blogsite of the Kan general public broadcaster.

The sites of a amount of Cyberserve’s consumers have been unavailable on Saturday morning.

Final calendar year, the Black Shadow attacked the Shirbit insurance policy organization and opened ransom negotiations, but the enterprise said it wouldn’t pay out, major to the darkish world-wide-web sale of data stolen from the business.

Lots of of Shirbit’s customers are from the general public sector and photographs of non-public documents launched incorporated the auto registration and credit history card information of an employee at the President’s Home, as effectively as particular correspondence and a relationship certificate, as effectively as the own information of the president of the Tel Aviv District Court docket.

Unnamed Israeli officials advised Channel 12 information at the time of the attack that they considered a condition was powering the Black Shadow attack. Having said that, they did not name the country.

Israel and Iran have been engaged in a years-extensive shadow war, with Israel allegedly directing most of its efforts — which includes many suspected cyberattacks — at sabotaging the Islamic Republic’s nuclear application.

This week, an unparalleled cyberattack took down Iran’s backed fuel distribution method.

A gasoline station is seen standing vacant because the pumps are out of support, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP Picture/Vahid Salemi)

Abolhassan Firoozabadi, a top rated official in Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, explained to point out broadcaster IRIB that the attack experienced seemingly been carried out by a foreign nation, while it was too early to identify suspects. He also joined the attack to yet another a person that qualified Iran’s rail procedure in July.

The next working day, an Iranian formal tweeted in Hebrew that the “enemy’s goal”

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