It is important for large businesses and enterprises to secure their wireless network, otherwise, if compromised can lead to a lot of problems for the whole enterprise. The security of the wireless network of any enterprise is very important to keep the data and communications of the enterprise as safe and secure as possible. Here are some ways by which you can secure the wireless network of your enterprise: Setting a Strong password for Administrator Account
The first and foremost thing that you should do is use a strong password for the router’s admin panel. This is the password that matters the most and it should be a strong one that no one can guess easily.
When you buy a new wireless router, it ships with a default password that is usually ‘admin’ or ‘administrator’. Almost everyone knows this and they can easily guess it and log in to the admin panel of your wireless router.
For the router’s administrator account, you should set such a password that isn’t common, hard to guess, and consists of upper-case letters, lower-case letters, digits, and special characters. Such passwords are impossible to be guessed by anyone.
Changing the default SSID
While changing the password of the router’s administrator account, you should also consider changing the SSID of the wireless network too. Whenever you buy a new router, it comes with the same default SSID that is either the name of the manufacturer or the model of the router.
When a hacker sees that the SSID of a wireless network is not changed and is the default SSID, he sees your wireless network as a potential target. Therefore, you should change the SSID of your network to something unique or the name of your enterprise.
In order to change the SSID, you need to type the default IP address 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in your browser and you will be taken to the router settings page.
Setting up the firewall
Nowadays, most of the routers come with built-in firewalls. On some routers, the firewall is configured and turned on while on others you would find that the firewall is turned off. Always make sure that the firewall is enabled for your wireless router, as the firewall overlooks the data being sent out or is coming in.
Using MAC Filtering
MAC Filtering is another feature that you should be using to secure your wireless network. Every device has a specific address similar to the IP address called Media Access Control (MAC) address. This address is used for the identification of devices and every device has a separate MAC address.
MAC Filtering is a feature where you filter the devices on the basis of their MAC Address. You can either whitelist or blacklist specific MAC Addresses and only those devices will be able to join your network or blocked from joining your network depending on whether you whitelisted or blacklisted the MAC Address.
It takes some time and effort to collect the MAC Addresses of all the devices but it is worth it and it makes your network more secure.
Physical Security of Router and Access Points
One of the things that are important but many people don’t really care much about is placing your router and access point at a secure place. Just like the software that needs proper protection and security; you also have to make sure that your network hardware is secured too.
You should place the router at a place where it is not known to anyone and it should not be kept. Keep it in a secure and safe place where it is accessible by the network team only. Also, make sure that the access points are secured too to prevent anyone from tampering.