Your router’s most questionable setting is probably still enabled, exposing your Wi-Fi to hackers
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a legacy feature on routers that was developed two decades ago to make it easier to connect devices to the Wi-Fi network. It worked by bypassing the need to enter the Wi-Fi password on, say, your printer manually. Instead, an 8-digit PIN was used for authentication, supplying the Wi-Fi password to the device. While the concept made sense on the surface, the implementation was far from airtight, and the feature was quickly exploited by threat actors, brute-forcing their way into networks within minutes. The industry moved on to better mechanisms like Wi-Fi Easy Connect, but WPS still ships on modern routers to this day. Despite many of your current devices not supporting WPS, it can be used to hack into your home network if it's enabled on your router. It goes without saying that disabling WPS should be one of the first things you should do on a new router.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a legacy feature on routers that was developed two decades ago to make it easier to connect devices to the Wi-Fi network. It worked by bypassing the need to enter the Wi-Fi password on, say, your printer manually. Instead, an 8-digit PIN was used for authentication, supplying the Wi-Fi password to the device. While the concept made sense on the surface, the implementation was far from airtight, and the feature was quickly exploited by threat actors, brute-forcing their way into networks within minutes. The industry moved on to better mechanisms like Wi-Fi Easy Connect, but WPS still ships on modern routers to this day. Despite many of your current devices not supporting WPS, it can be used to hack into your home network if it’s enabled on your router. It goes without saying that disabling WPS should be one of the first things you should do on a new router.
Jane Smith
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Published by: aplhsindia.in
