Secure your home router: a 12-point checklist from CISA guidance

Every phone, laptop, TV and smart device in your home reaches the internet through your router. If the router is weak, everything behind it is exposed. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) publishes a "Home Network Security" guide, and its recommendations translate directly to Kenyan homes. Here they are in plain language.

1. Use the strongest Wi-Fi encryption available. CISA recommends WPA3 Personal with AES. If your router is older and only offers WPA2, choose WPA2 with AES and never an open network.
2. Change the router's administrator password. Default usernames and passwords are published online or printed on the device itself.
3. Change the default network name (SSID), and avoid names that reveal who you are or where you live.
4. Turn off Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Its PIN design makes brute-force attacks easier.
5. Limit how far your signal travels beyond your home by adjusting placement, antenna type or transmit power if your router allows it.
6. Switch Wi-Fi off, or schedule it off, when you are travelling or the house is empty for long periods.
7. Disable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) unless something you use needs it. Malware can use UPnP to get around the router's firewall.
8. Keep the firmware up to date, and turn on automatic updates if the router supports them.
9. Turn off remote management so that nobody can reach the router's settings over the internet.
10. Check the router's device list from time to time for unknown devices joining your network.
11. Make sure the router's firewall is on and configured; some firewall features ship switched off.
12. Disable services you do not use, to reduce the number of ways in.

Where to start if you only have five minutes

Change the administrator password, check that Wi-Fi encryption is WPA3 or WPA2-AES, and switch off WPS and remote management. Those four changes close the most common doors.

Routers supplied by Unicast

Every Unicast residential plan includes a router, and our Ultimate plan adds a network security package. If you would like help applying any of the settings above to the router at your home, contact our support team and we will walk you through it.