Asia Submarine Cable Express Takes off

A new 7,800 km undersea data cable has opened to traffic in Asia linking Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines which could aid in financial trade.

The Submarine-cable Express (ASE) transfers data via an optical fibre system at 40 gigabits per second means data transfer capacity of 40 Gbps is the equivalent of downloading a high-resolution DVD in about two seconds.

Wireless Security - Secure Your Router

Wireless enabled devices like laptops , smart phones and tablets  are common gadgets in the current generation. These devices are connected to wireless access points available in office or residence or sometimes in airport for internet access.

Recently I have conducted a survey on wireless security and some general features of wireless devices. I found more than 90% users either uses laptop/smart phones/Tablets connecting to wireless router present at their home/office for internet usage. I have also observed that most of the users are not aware of serious security threat.

Wi-Fi signals don't know where your house ends and where your neighbor's begins. Wi-Fi signal leakage gives hackers and neighbors the opportunity to find your wireless network and attempt to access it without your knowledge. Some important factors that account the usage of internet are 

      1)       Official works

      2)      Social networking

      3)      Personal mails/blogs

      4)      Sale and purchase from ecommerce websites

      5)      Online Banking

      6)      Other( googling…etc)

 

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    1.     What do you think about hacking the wireless router ?

 

“71.4% of the users know their router is prone to hack, while 28.6% are not aware of threats but they don’t believe it a foolproof secure”

Lets us assume what happens if your neighbor gains access to your wireless router Below is the figure showing the real time Wireless Access points observed from my room. Some of them are secured with WPA2 , few with WEP and some access points without security key. Also please note do not name your router with your flat number giving more privileges to the neighbors showing your identity.  Below are some examples showing the names with flat numbers.

       If neighbor / hacker gains access to your wireless router then all your activities can be monitored, believe me it’s a serious security threat. The below figure clearly shows how a hacker connects your network and steals the critical information like your browsing data including passwords and transaction details including the credit card number 

2.      How frequent do you change your router key/password?

"50 % of users never cared of changing password or key regularly and about 21.5% never changed their default password/key”

“Only 7.5% users change their key weekly/monthly”

First thing you need is to change the default username and password of your router. Any user connected can browse for your ADSL username and password to access the router interface. Router interface can be accessed using http://192.168.1.1 ( Netgear )  directly from any browser. Mostly the username is “admin” and password is “password” or “admin”. Please check the below attachment for default usernames and passwords

 Download 

3.     Do you suspect any change in your internet data speed or downloads recently?

“64.3% of users observe either their Internet speed is slower than actual from past few days or they feel their download limit is not in sync with their actual usage”

“35.7% never cared to analyze the bandwidth” – Below are some of the tools which can help to analyze the bandwidth.

Contact you Internet provider to get the details of your downloads and alert them if you find anything alarming.Calculate you Internet Download and upload speed from the below mentioned website or any other speed related tools http://www.speedtest.net/ www.2wire.com

4.     Type of password you prefer WEP / WPA ? wireless routers have an option of choosing the encryption type of Wireless equivalent privacy (WEP) and wifi-protected access (WPA).

“42.9% users not aware of encryption type WEP/WPA“

WEP Router key can be hacked in minutes by your neighbors. It is very easy to decode with tools like aircrack. WPA also prone but relatively better than WEP. 

Its time for you to change for WPA 2 with strong passphrase Which gives you more advantage

5.     Do you aware of mac address filter (enhanced security) feature on your router ?

“71.4% users router users does not aware of MAC Filter option“

Configure your wireless router to only allow certain MAC addresses to connect.

       MAC address filtering sounds great in theory. Every network device in the world has a unique MAC address – also known as a physical address - so using it to restrict the devices that can connect to your network sounds like wireless security’s “magic bullet”. There are two major shortcomings in this theory. Firstly, the MAC address is sent in the header of every data packet – unaffected by encryption – and thus is open to sniffer software. Secondly, MAC addresses can easily be spoofed – which also has genuine uses in networking - using readily available software.                        

 

Best Practices for making your network safe and secure

If you want to secure your Wi-Fi router do the following:

1. Firstly change the default username and password of your router. Anyone connected can browse for your ADSL username and password. Use a least 12 letter passwords. Mix it with caps, numbers and special characters. Don't use dictionary words.

2. Use WPA2 - AES. Last I've heard is that WEP and WPA1 has been hacked

3. Hide the SSID. There are hacker tools to unhide the SSID, but this extra step can make it a step harder for the hacker.

4. Use mac addresses. Also there are hacker tools to spoof mac addresses, another step to increase security.

5. Turn off DHCP. The hacker has to use Static ip address to join the network. Make the network ip different than the norm. This make it harder for the hacker to guess the IP range.

6. Limit the IP range of the network. Anyone outside the range cannot connect.

7. Turn off remote access. Some routers can be access remotely and router setting can be change. Turn this setting off.

9. Use a personal firewall like Commodo - freeware.