In light of the fact how one of the National Security Agencies’ (NSA) principal responsibilities involves conducting electronic spying It stands to reason that it has a clue or two about security on networks.

It turns out that The NSA’s Information Assurance Directorate (IAD) offers a technical manual titled the best practices for securing your home networks. Don’t believe the title however, as a lot of the advice it offers can be applied to small-sized businesses and home networks.

Certain of the security advice from the NSA are normal sense, but they are often ignored. Take a look at some of the agency’s recommendations How many do you adhere to? Here are some network tips and tricks that can save your time.

 

1. Reduce the use by Administrator Accounts

In the default (not to mention the necessity) the account you create on your Windows PC comes with administrator rights for the system regardless of whether the account is not explicitly identified as “Administrator.” However, most people choose to make use of this default account for all their computing needs, which makes them particularly vulnerable to many threats you will come across when surfing the Web and logging into emails. (Malware is dependent on access to administrators in the end.)

The solution is to create an account that is standard to use your computer at work and then save the administrator account to use when you really need it — to install hardware software, installing hardware, or making changes to the system’s configuration. Be aware that when logged in using a standard account you can click on a program’s right-click icon and select the option to run the program as an administrator option in the event of a need.

 

2. Make use of the full Disk Encryption (FDE) on Laptops

Laptops are often lost or stolen. If it happens, your traditional password protection might fail to prevent an armed thief from getting access to your personal information. Full Disk Encryption (FDE) is, however provides an additional security layer by protecting not only specific files or folders but also the entire content of your PC, including the operating system.

Windows 7 offers built-in full disk encryption as part of its Bitlocker feature, however it’s only available for the Enterprise or Ultimate editions. (You can upgrade your previous version of Windows 7 to Ultimate via the Windows whenever upgrade.) There are also various third-party, full disk encryption solutions available such as Jetico’s BestCrypt and Jetico’sBestCrypt and the open-source and free TrueCrypt.

 

3.  Update Your Operating System to 64-bit

Many companies employ the “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” method to justify their continuing usage in Windows XP. However, when security is concerned, XP is broke, and the fact that you could still receive updates — as long as you have Service Pack 3 — does not really solve the problem with this long-running operating system from a security perspective.

Be aware that XP is now more than 10 years old. so the time to upgrade to Windows 10 has been much overdue. (When you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 10, be sure to choose the 64-bit version instead of the 32-bit version as it is less difficult for criminals to hack into.)

 

4.  Utilize Your Own Router or Wireless Access Point

Nowadays the majority of ISPs offer cable/DSL modems equipped with integrated routers, Ethernet switch, and Wi-Fi access points. These all-in-one devices can be useful, but they leave your network’s security with your ISP instead of your own. (Many ISPs limit your ability to upgrade firmware, or modify or view settings on their hardware.)

Instead of running your network from the device you don’t own or control, you can set up your own wireless access point or router and turn off the functions of your ISP’s equipment.

 

5.   Make Use of WPA2.

You’ve probably heard that protecting your Wi-Fi network by using WEP encryption is no superior to none even. Even the far superior WPA is an extremely vulnerable attack particularly when short or dictionary-based passphrases are utilized.

To ensure the highest level of security for any wireless networks, make sure you go to WPA 2 as it utilizes AES encryption that is much stronger over WPA’s TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) technique used by WPA. Make sure you are aware of these two limitations However there are some devices that don’t support PCs, and they aren’t compatible with WPA2 (firmware updates might resolve this). Additionally, WPA2 consumes more computational power than WPA and, therefore, it may reduce performance of wireless networks if utilized with older access devices or PCs.