Securing your wireless network

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) transmit and receive data using radio waves rather than wires. This lack of a physical barrier makes WLANs vulnerable to unlawful interception, eavesdropping, hacking and a range of other cyber security issues.

Wireless network security issues and threats

The three most common WLAN security threats include:

• denial of service attacks - where the intruder floods the network with messages affecting the availability of the network resources
• spoofing and session hijacking - where the attacker gains access to network data and resources by assuming the identity of a valid user
• eavesdropping - where unauthorised third parties intercept the data being transmitted over the secure network

To counter these threats, you should make every effort to configure your WLAN correctly. You should also enable a range of security features, such as standard authentication and encryption, alongside other access control mechanisms.

Basic WLAN security features

Early wireless hardware relied on weak security methods. These no longer work against modern threats. Outdated features to avoid include:

• Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) - these hide your network name, but hackers easily detect and bypass them
• Media Access Control (MAC) filtering - this limits connections by device hardware address, but hackers can spoof them easily
• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) - this is basic, outdated encryption, now easily cracked

WEP is pretty much extinct in new hardware. Legacy devices using it risk total compromise. Even combined, these features offer little meaningful protection.

What is more, WLAN equipment often comes with security measures switched off entirely. If you don't switch these on during setup, you risk leaving your network wide open.

Upgrade your WLAN security protocols

If your WLAN still uses basic features like SSIDs, MAC filtering or WEP, upgrade immediately to Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) - specifically WPA3 with strong, unique passwords. WPA2 is acceptable as a minimum, but vulnerable to known attacks. You should enable WPA3 during router setup for best protection - most modern devices support it.