Another day, another headline about a hardware security vulnerability. While I no longer focus on supporting hardware for clients, I can’t ignore it. Hardware and various devices are an essential part of modern businesses. With that in mind, what are easy-to-implement actions you can take to protect your technology and help to prevent or mitigate disaster?
Change default usernames/passwords
And please don’t make it “Password123”! Default passwords are that, defaults. In the early years of what I’ll call “tech at home”, many devices had a factory set username and password. If you knew that you could access it. While those have become stronger over the years, I still advocate changing it from the default.
Apply updates
Don’t forget about all the devices that are in your technology ecosystem. It’s part of why you need tech documentation. I know, it’s annoying to apply updates and something almost always changes or is different. However, for the most part they increase security. As part of my biannual review I check for updates to all the devices. Should you check for updates more frequently? That’s a decision you need to make and how often you do so depends on different factors. I suggest at a minimum twice a year!
Ask if you need it
I know it’s tempting to get all the newest in IoT devices. They can be fun, they can make things easier, but they are all still very new. I trust them, but not completely. While I’m slowly integration devices into my home, each device and feature is vetted and slowly granted access to a portion of my network.
I hope these tips help you to feel more confident about the security of your devices. If you have questions please contact me.