‘Prepping’ for Work from Home

For the past few years employees and employers alike extolled the virtues of working from home (‘WFH’). We’ve heard the stories of how it leads to a happier and more productive employee, less overhead for the employer, and just more flexibility overall. Most people knew a shift would come eventually – kind of like the shift to IPV6- but it stalled and stalled. Then the pandemic happened and WFH had been thrust upon us with such force that businesses were, and still are, scrambling to get the pieces in place for an effective remote staff.

It is no longer a secret that WFH is here to stay. Many businesses including Fujitsu and Twitter have just gone ahead and implemented WFH ‘forever’. With this change come challenges. One of those is the security of routers in the millions upon millions of homes that now serve as working offices.  According to a study by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, vendors have failed to fix hundreds of vulnerabilities in their consumer-grade routers, leaving hundreds of thousands of users exposed to a wide range of attacks. "Nearly all were found to have security flaws, some of them very severe," the Fraunhofer Institute said in a press release. "The problems range from missing security updates to easily decrypted, hard-coded passwords, and known vulnerabilities that should have been patched long ago."

 Advice on next steps

So what should we do? The first step is to know the make and model of your router. Research it for any known vulnerabilities, as there may be some cases where the device is so insecure that even patching it still leaves it vulnerable. Once you’ve decided if it is worth keeping the device make sure that it automatically installed firmware updates. If not you may need to manually update it. A task that is well worth the effort. Another task is to make sure that the administrator password for the router has been changed from the default admin password. Many routers now have unique default passwords for their routers- but there are still plenty out there that don’t.

WFH Users should use complex passwords on their routers including:

·         Uppercase and Lowercase

·         Numbers and Symbols

·         At least 8 characters long

You should also use the strongest Wi-Fi encryption your router supports. WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access Version 3) is best.

You may have children working, playing, and streaming while you are home. Ensure they use their own devices and do not surf on your work devices.

Router configuration and device hardening are just one of the many layers of security that businesses need to adapt and expand to their remote workforce. We here at CyberSecOp would not be surprised if, sooner rather than later, companies begin purchasing, installing, and administering home routers to ensure a secure endpoint to endpoint networking. Until then remain vigilant and patch patch patch!

Author: Carlos Neto