There are some basic steps that businesses should take in order to ensure a basic level of wireless security.

Many small businesses take advantage of the convenience of wireless networks as they can be easier to configure and maintain when compared with traditional wired computer networks. In addition, off-the-shelf wireless routers or products designed specifically for the SME market are likely to present cost savings over enterprise grade hardware.

However, wireless networks can open unsecured paths into business networks and, by using consumer grade routers, sensitive business communications can be put at risk. The abundance of security settings can lead to insecure setups which essentially work, but that leave the network vulnerable to exploitation.

There are some basic steps that businesses should take in order to ensure a basic level of wireless security.

Use WPA2 encryption

Older security options, like ‘WEP’, can be broken by cyber criminals in moments without the requirement for special hacking equipment or techniques – even by using something as simple as freely available browser add-ons or mobile phone applications.  WPA2 is the latest security algorithm which is included with virtually all wireless systems - make sure that your network is configured to use this standard.

Choose a password longer than 10 characters

Even newer encryption standards like WPA2 can be compromised using attacks which employ automated processes to try billions of possible passwords, until they eventually arrive at the correct one through a process of elimination. Longer passwords don’t need to be hard to remember. Using a phrase like "makemywirelessnetworksecure" instead of a shorter, more complex password like "w1f1p4ss!" in fact offers far more security, as the computing power to test and break such a long password is far greater.  

Don’t use standard network names

Most wireless routers will come with a default wireless network name (this is the name of the router as it appears on your computer when you try to connect to it. It’s also known as the ‘service set identification’ or ‘SSID’). This is usually something like "netgear" or "linksys", which most users do not bother to change. Not changing this allows hackers to prepare default password look-up lists for common SSIDs (known as rainbow tables), which speed up the password cracking process drastically, enabling them to test millions of passwords per second. Having a custom SSID drastically increases the work and time needed to attempt to compromise your wireless network.

Leave personal information out of your SSID

You don’t want to give hackers a way to know that your network is worth trying to compromise. Putting "HR router" as the SSID provides information which might be useful to someone targeting your business. Don’t give hackers a way to see whether a wireless network is yours, or the one belonging to the shop around the corner. Instead, use something arbitrary which doesn’t identify you or your location.

In your password, add numbers, special characters, and use upper and lower case characters

Complex passwords increase the amount of characters which must be considered when performing password cracking. For example, if your password consists of 4 digits and you only use numbers, there will be 10 times 4 (10,000) possibilities. If you additionally use the alphabet in only small cases, you will get 36 times 4 possibilities (1,6 million). By using numbers, special characters and upper and lower case characters, you will effectively force any cracking program used on your network to choose from 104 characters times 11 digits, resulting in 15,394,540,563,150,776,827,904 possibilities! This increases the time needed to crack a password from seconds to millions of years.

Tune the range of the Wi-Fi radio

Modern Wi-Fi access points have multiple transmitting antennas, letting their signal reach far beyond the walls of the places they are providing network access to. Some products let you adjust the transmission power of the radio using menu options. This provides a way to limit how far outside your location someone can pick up your wireless signal and potentially work on compromising your network.