Use anti-virus software

Although we have not touched on anti-virus software, I want to add it as a security best practice - ensure you are using anti-virus software on all of your systems! Anti-virus software is software that is designed to protect your system against viruses.

Securing wireless

Add a few tips here to help secure your wireless environment:

• Router password: After you hook up your wireless router be sure to connect to the router and change the admin password. Most wireless routers ship with no password so be sure to protect your router by assigning one. Check the documentation that came with your router to find out how to set an admin password.
• Set the SSID: The security set identifier (SSID) is a name assigned to your wireless network. You should change the name of the SSID and also not use your company name. When hackers are war driving, they pick up on a signal from a wireless network, and if the SSID says "BridgetsWidgets," they then look for the building with the "Bridget's Widgets" sign. When they spot the sign, they then drive close to the building so that they get a stronger signal. Don't make it easy for them to figure out what building to get close to!
• Disable SSID broadcasting: After you have set the SSID, you also want to disable the broadcasting of the SSID. The wireless router broadcasts the SSID so anyone who gets close will know the wireless network is there. If you disable broadcasting, then to connect to the wireless network, a person has to know and input the SSID manually into his or her network client.
• Enable WEP: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a method to encrypt traffic from the wireless client to the wireless access point. If you enable WEP, you type a passphrase that is used to perform the encryption, and anyone who wishes to connect to your wireless network must also know this passphrase.