Routers often come with easy-to-guess passwords out of the box, which is why you always need to change the default settings. For the wireless network name, many people choose something easy to remember, like your name or your address. If you use that personal information for the network name, you might make a hacker’s job easier.
Photo by woodleywonderworks
A recent study by the computer security software maker Avast! found that 25% of survey participants used personal information for passwords like the street address, name of phone number. What they didn’t mention in the study is the network name or SSID.
If someone is trying to hack into your network, your SSID shouldn’t tell them which network is yours. Once they know your network, they can attempt to guess your password or use social engineering to get you to reveal it.
Don’t make a hacker’s job any easier. You don’t have to change your name to something alarming or hide it entirely. Whatever name you create, it shouldn’t contain personal information. Stuck for a password? Try using the word of the day and learn some vocabulary along the way.
Avast Research Discovers 79 Per cent of American Home Networks are at Risk of Cybersecurity Attacks [Avast via Boy Genius Report]
Comments
3 responses to “Don’t Use Personal Information In Your Wi-Fi Network Name”
How do amusing SSID names rate? Would people be clever enough to guess that a nerd’s house probably has decent tech if they’ve noticed ‘All your bandwidth are belong to us’ or ‘Pretty fly for a Wi-Fi’ being broadcast?
And if you run a cafe/bar/restaurant that has wi-fi for business but not customer use, don’t use the name of your business as your network name unless you want people asking every five minutes if they can have the password so they can use it for free.
My home SSID is just “.” It’s easy to remember.
Although my hotspot is “Nacho Wifi” from the worlds greatest joke, ‘What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho Cheese.’