What Makes up your home Network? Your Home Network facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of your house or home. Devices that can connect to your home network include computers, mobile phones, tablets or games consoles.

7 Steps For Good Home Security. Here are the 7 Things you can do, to ensure you are secure at home. We will cover each one in more detail later on: • • • •

Secure your network - Make sure you secure your wireless environment. Security Software - Install protective software like Anti-Virus. Install updates - Always keep your system and software up to date. Restrict access - Make sure only you have access to applications and personal data. • Backup - Create backups of your files. • Dispose Securely - This is important for both sensitive documents, such as bills or bank statements, and also redundant devices/laptops.

Securing your Wireless Network Your wireless network enables you to connect to the internet via your router. If you do not secure your wireless network correctly, it can be accessed by other people in close proximity to it. These could be neighbours or a malicious user nearby. These unwanted users could use your network for: • Illegal Content - Downloading or streaming of illegal material. • SPAM - Sending of SPAM emails or using your device to attack others. • Theft of your Data - e.g. Personal information, Credit card and Bank details Remember, any action on your network can be seen by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and you may be considered responsible

How to Secure Your Wireless Network. Good wireless security is easy to implement, here are some tips: • Encrypt your Network Traffic - When connecting to networks, always ensure that you are connecting to the correct network. You can also often check the levels of encryption for the network - always use WPA2 if available. • Change Your Router Name and Password - Ensure the router name is something only you would recognize and use a strong password. Keep your router away from windowsills or anywhere it may be seen from outside. • Ensure you regularly update your Router - You can often connect to your router via your computer. The address may be on the back of your router (examples may look like http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.16 8.1.1 )

Secure your wireless Network Here are some more advanced options to further secure your wireless network: • Only allow authorised devices to access your network - Most routers allow you to create a whitelist using your device's Media Access Control (MAC) address. • Turn off Management features - If you have had tech support you may have been asked to allow remote access to your router, this should always be turned off once finished. • Turn off Ping response - A Ping response is a way for someone to check that your router is connected, it's a bit like ringing a doorbell to see if anyone's home. It should already be turned off by default, but you should check to be sure.

Install Security Software Some examples of security software that you should consider installing are: • Anti-Virus - Anti-Virus scans your computer and looks for viruses and malicious software. • Anti-Malware - This is a scanning solution. It does not only scan for viruses, but also all other threats that could affect your system. • A Personal Firewall - A Firewall monitors traffic on your network and blocks anything that could cause an issue on your computer.

Set to Automatic Updates When using any application or device it is essential that you keep it up to date. Updates include the latest security patches and fixes to help defend against new attacks. To make this easier to manage you should follow these quick steps. • Auto-update - Set your software and applications to auto-update. This includes your Operating System (OS). • Regular Anti-Virus scans - Schedule scans in the settings of your application or system.

Restrict Access to Your Data Your information is valuable and should be treated as if it is. Here are three tips to help keep your information secure: • Information sharing - Only share your personal information when required and ensure it's only with a trusted source. • Secure valuable files - Keep sensitive files and documents in secure locations. You would put your jewellery in a safe and it should be the same for your valuable information. • Use password protection and encryption - This is a good way to protect sensitive files on your device. Remember, always ensure that the passwords you use are unique and cannot be easily guessed.

Backup your Files Create regular backups - this way you can easily restore your data with little or no impact. You can store this on either: Removable storage (USB, portable hard drive etc.) Secure Cloud storage An alternative network device Always use a strong password and store any device in a secure place.

Dispose of Sensitive Documents Securely For physical documents, remember these three things to ensure you data stays secure:

SCAN - STORE - SHRED Scan - If you need an online copy, you should store it on your device or in the cloud using password protection. Ensure that you dispose of the original document in a secure way. Store - Do not leave sensitive documents lying around. Once opened and read, they should be stored securely and out of sight. Shred - Purchasing a shredder enables you to destroy bank statements and other sensitive documents so that they can be securely disposed of in your home waste.

Dispose of Old, Redundant or Damaged Devices Securely. If you are disposing of or selling a device that has had your data stored on it, it is important to take the following steps: Backup - Create a back up of all of your data. De-authorise - De-authorise any accounts associated with the device, for example iTunes, Netflix or Facebook. Delete - Securely delete all of the data on the device. Restore settings - Restore the device to factory settings