Step 10: Secure your wireless internet connection

Many of the latest computers come with the ability to connect to the internet and other nearby computers without the need for wires or cables, using a wireless connection. Instead of wires or fibre-optic cable, wireless technology uses radio waves and/or microwaves to transmit the data similar to a mobile phone or radio.

If you are using a wireless connection to connect to the internet, or between other computers in your office or home (i.e. a wireless network), make sure you can protect your connection. If you don't secure your wireless connection properly, people in your neighbourhood may be able to use your internet connection or access the information on your computer.

How to be smart with your wireless internet connection

• Set a strong password. Wireless hardware and software usually comes with a default password set by the manufacturer. These are standard passwords that any unauthorised person with the intention of accessing your wireless connection is likely to know. Make sure the wireless hardware and software you are using have strong passwords.
• Turn off your broadcast. Restrict how many people in your neighbourhood can 'see' your wireless network by:
  • turning off the feature that automatically and constantly broadcasts your wireless network's name (this is called the SSID)beyond your premises into the local area, and
  • reducing the power of the transmission (if your wireless equipment allows it) so it reduces the distance that the signal carries.
• Turn encryption on. Make sure you have encryption turned on in your wireless software settings. Encryption means to take data and scramble it according to a particular formula in such a complex way that it is extremely difficult for anyone without the formula to make sense of it. The formula is separated from the data until it is needed to unscramble it. This makes it very hard for anyone on the internet who somehow manages to intercept your transmitted data to make sense of it.
• Turn WPA on. Choose the strongest encryption method available. WEP offers the most basic protection and should only be used if there are no other options available, such as WPA or WPA2. See the SSO Factsheet WiFi Security for further information.
• Restrict access. Restrict access to your wireless network to specific computers that you nominate. Every computer connected to your network uses a network adaptor, each one of which has a unique identifier called a MAC (Media Access Control) address. You will need to find the MAC address of each system and register it via software settings with the router and the central access point to the wireless network - usually a computer.  
• Turn off remote access. Turn off any feature your wireless hardware may have that allows you to give administration access to someone off-site, e.g. an administrator who might be anywhere on the internet, such as the person who looks after your computers. 
• Turn off the connection. Turn off your wireless connection when you are not using it.

Further information

This is a more technical area than some others so you may wish to look on the internet for further explanations of the terms used here. This can be done by typing the term 'wireless security', or a specific word, into your preferred search engine.

See the SSO Facsheet WiFi security for further information.