Network security is very important for everyone, no matter what you are using. Hackers are out there and it is very important to have the necessary security to keep your data and personal life safe.

1. By: Nathan Forant
SOBX Tech

2. By definition Network Security is the protection of networks
and their services from unauthorized modification,
destruction or disclosure, and provision of assurance that the
network performs its critical functions correctly and there
are no harmful side effects. Basically meaning that network
security makes sure that you are the ONLY one how can use
and gain access to your network, which helps you keep
intruders or hackers from getting to your information on your
computer.

3. Today, people do a lot of tasks online such as banking,
shopping, reservations etc, right from the comfort of their
home. With these privileges comes the need to input
important information (such as credit card numbers and
account numbers) into web pages where you don’t know
who’s reading the information on the other side or who is
spying on what you do from a separate location.

4. As the Internet has grown so has the intelligence and
capabilities of hackers. Software programs have become
more and more complicated making it harder to find a
small hole or virus. Without proper security software, all it
takes is for you to download a free virus-filled application
off the Internet and run it. However, even with proper
security software hackers can develop new methods of
getting into your computer, which makes it of the most
importance to constantly update your security software.

5. Passwords are keys you use to access safeguarded
information, such as personal information, online accounts,
banking information, etc. In the online world, passwords are
the main way of keeping hackers away from your
information. It’s the hardest thing for another person to find
out. Without passwords, what would protect our information
online? E-mail addresses? How easy is it to figure out your
friends email address? It is important to make sure that your
password is something that nobody else will not be able to
figure out easily. For example, you shouldn’t make your
password your name since all of your friends will be able to
login to your online accounts and see your information.

6. What makes a strong password? There is a lot of criteria to
include when making a strong password.
Length – All passwords should be long. Most places where you
input a password will give you a number range of characters
to include in the password. It is always best to include the
MAXIMUM number of characters. The longer the password the
more possibilities a hacker has to go through before he/she
gets to your password. If there is no range acknowledged,

7. it is best to include 14 or more characters. Some places let
you include a [space] as a character in the passwords. It is
best to take advantage of that and create a password of
multiple words.

8. Characters – Make sure to use all types of characters. The
more symbols used the harder it will be for a hacker to
determine your password. Sometimes the place where you
enter a password will tell you what characters/symbols you
can use in your password. If you cannot use a wide variety of
characters it is important to make the password longer to get
the same degree of safety from it.
Think of making a password as choosing a word/phrase to use
in hangman. The more unique the letters, the harder it will
be for somebody to figure out. Make sure to use phrases that
you will be able to remember, but others will not be able to
figure out.

9. There are certain types of passwords that you want to make
sure NOT to use.
Avoid using passwords that have repeating characters such as
“222222”, “123456”, “abcdef” or adjacent letters on your
keyboard such as “asdfgh” or “qwerty”
Purposely mistaking look-alike symbols such as “l”(L) for
“1”(one). Or words like “P@ssw0rd” that just look like the
same word. Hackers are smart enough not to be fooled by
these.
.

10. Do not use parts of your login name, real name, birthday,
social security number, credit card number, or other
important information that you are already trying to protect
with that password.
Do not use words that exist in dictionaries of any language.
Hackers have very good software that can quickly go through
dictionaries of any language as well as backwards words,
common misspellings, and substitutions.
Do not use the same password for anything more than once.
If a hacker gets access to one of your passwords he/she will
keep note of that password and try to use it later again.

11. Wireless security is the prevention of unauthorized access or
damage to computers using wireless networks. The risks to
users of wireless technology have increased as the service
has become more popular.

12. WEP stands for Wired Equivalency Privacy and comes in
different key sizes. The common key lengths are currently
128- and 256-bit. The longer the better as it will increase the
difficulty for crackers. Your WEP key is basically your
password to access your network. This password is one of the
most important passwords you can have. Check out the
password section for more information on creating a safe and
strong password.

13. Your SSID (Service set identifier) is the name used to identify
your wireless network. By default your wireless router
probably broadcasts your SSID meaning when it sends out the
signal it also sends out the SSID so that computers that pick
up the signal can pick up the name of the network. This
makes it easy for auto-detection of your wireless network but
it also makes it easier for people to jump on your network.
You can disable the broadcast of your SSID and the only thing

14. you have to do is manually enter that name on all the
computers you have connected to your wireless network. It is
much more difficult for a person to try to get on your
network if they cannot even see it in the first place.

15. Even though you think the internet is the best thing in the
world, it too has its risks. you see there are many people who
want too damage your life and your computer. you hear a lot
on the news about identity theft involving computers and
that sends a chill. Even when people do hear about these
risks, they think that it won’t happen to them and forget
about it. You should always be informed about the latest
news involving how you can protect yourselves.

16. Having a secure website is necessary for just about
everything you do online. There are many easy ways to tell
if a site is secure and encrypted. first detail you should
notice is it has “https” at the beginning of the URL. The
website should have a “s” which means that any information
is encrypted. most browsers include a lock icon in the
browser to show that it has encryption, but you have to make
sure that it isn’t just a picture.

17. Did you ever know that hackers can alter browser code to
mislead you? This type of phishing can be very tricky to
detect because everything looks normal. They can write Java
Script commands to change the way your address bar works.
they can place a picture over a real site to make it look like
you are going to a secure site. In some cases malicious URL
details can be hidden by encoding techniques. This type of
phishing is harmful for inexperienced users.

18. Your browser is an important step to protect you form
unwanted internet troubles. a good browser should help you
protect against phishing and other dangers of the internet.
browsers are regularly updated to include patches of known
security risks. they send out fixes that cover up holes in the
browser’s code so hackers can’t take over a computer and
steal information. it is a good idea to always check for
browser updates to get the latest and most secure edition of
your browser.