Securing your office network and wifi: the basics that are often forgotten

Many businesses invest in accounts and devices but forget the network everything runs over. Yet your router and wifi are literally the front door of your digital business. Fortunately, a few basic steps already remove a lot of risk, without becoming a network expert.

1. Change your router’s default settings

Routers come with a default admin password that can be found online. Change the admin password and the default network name immediately. This is the most basic and most skipped step.

2. Use strong wifi security

Set your wifi to the latest encryption (WPA3, or otherwise WPA2) with a strong, unique password. Avoid old, insecure standards, they are easily cracked.

3. Create a separate guest network

Give visitors, and where possible employees’ personal phones too, a separate guest network. That way unknown devices are not on the same network as your business systems. Most business routers can do this by default.

4. Keep the firmware up to date

Your router is a computer too, with software that can have vulnerabilities. Enable automatic updates or periodically check for new firmware, exactly as with your other updates and patches.

5. Know which devices are connected

Occasionally check in your router which devices are connected. If you do not recognise something, that is a signal. A well-maintained network is a clear network.

6. Separate sensitive systems where you can

Do you run a system with particularly sensitive data, or for example payment terminals? Consider putting it on a separate network segment, so a problem elsewhere cannot automatically reach it.

Remember: the network is part of the whole

Network security does not stand alone. Combine it with MFA, secure devices, and agreements on remote work, especially now that work is no longer confined to the office.

Help setting it up?

We are happy to review whether your network is set up well, practically and without unnecessary complexity. See our cybersecurity service or book a conversation.