Corinex Global ADSL2+ - Manual (Page 122)

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Appendices
Corinex ADSL2+ Wireless Gateway G
3) Network Devices
With every wireless networking device you use, keep in mind that network settings
(SSID, WEP keys, etc.) are stored in its firmware. If they get into the hands of a
hacker, so do all of your settings. So keep an eye on them.
4) Administrator passwords
Your network administrator is the only person who can change network set-
tings. If a hacker gets a hold of the administrator’s password, he, too, can change
those settings. So, make it harder for a hacker to get that information. Change the
administrator’s password regularly.
5) SSID
There are a few things you can do to make your SSID more secure:
a. Disable Broadcast
b. Make it unique
c. Change it often
Most wireless networking devices will give you the option of broadcasting the SSID.
This is a option for convenience, allowing anyone to log into your wireless network.
In this case, however, anyone includes hackers. So don’t broadcast the SSID.
A default SSID is set on your wireless devices by the factory. (The Corinex default
SSID is “corinex”.) Hackers know these defaults and can check these against your
network. Change your SSID to something unique and not something related to
your company or the networking products you use.
Changing your SSID regularly will force any hacker attempting to gain access to
your wireless network to start looking for that new SSID.
With these three steps in mind, please remember that while SSIDs are good for
segmenting networks, they fall short with regards to security. Hackers can usually
find them quite easily.
6) MAC addresses
Enable MAC address filtering if your wireless products allow it. MAC address fil-
tering will allow you to provide access to only those wireless nodes with certain
MAC addresses. This makes it harder for a hacker using a random MAC address or
spoofing (faking) a MAC address.