Module 8 of StartCloud's Cyber Hygiene for Staff learning pathway, in five short units with a knowledge check: the home router nobody has updated since it was installed, keeping the work laptop for work and the family laptop for family, why the kids using your work machine is a genuine risk, printing and paper at home, and video calls where your screen or your house is on show.
Working From Home Without Bringing Work Home
The router nobody has touched since it arrived
Somewhere in your house there is a small box with blinking lights that has not been thought about since the day it was installed. Everything you do from home goes through it, including work, and it is the least maintained piece of technology most of us own.
The office router gets patched by somebody whose job that is. Yours does not, unless you do it. The good news is this is a one-off afternoon job with four parts, and then you can go back to ignoring it with a clear conscience.
Most routers ship with a default login that is printed in a manual anyone can download. That login is what lets someone change your settings, not just use your internet. Set a long passphrase instead, and if your router lets you rename the account from admin to something else, do that too.
The ACSC suggests changing the network name from the manufacturer's default and keeping anything identifying out of it, so it does not announce your surname, your unit number or the exact model of router you are running. The Wi-Fi password should be long and hard to guess, and it is fine to write it on the fridge.
Routers get security updates for a limited window, and the ACSC puts that window at roughly three to five years depending on the brand and model. If yours has not seen an update in years, or the manufacturer has stopped supporting it, replacing it is one of the cheapest security wins in the house.
Most routers have a guest Wi-Fi option sitting there unused. Put visitors, the smart TV, the doorbell camera and the kids' friends on it. It keeps the odds and ends separated from the network your work laptop is using, and it takes about five minutes to switch on.
Log in to the router and change the admin password. That is the one that matters most, because it is the difference between someone borrowing your internet and someone quietly rearranging your network. Your internet provider's support page will walk you through getting in, and there is no shame in ringing them.