How to Prepare Wi-Fi Networks for Smart Devices

Before you plug in and fire up those smart light bulbs, appliances or television you need to prepare your Wi-Fi network to ensure your speeds and security are not affected by the presence of this new equipment.

It is estimated by research firm IHS that the IoT market will grow from an installed base of 15.4 billion devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025. Our washing machines, coffee pots, thermostats, lights, probably even the toilet and the kitchen sink will all be hooked up to our home Wi-Fi networks. While this will likely lead to more convenience when it comes to home management and maintenance it will also create bottlenecks on home networks slowing down your smart phone, tablet and laptops.

Before you plug in and fire up those smart light bulbs, appliances or television you need to prepare your Wi-Fi network to ensure your speeds and security are not affected by the presence of this new equipment. Most people plug in their Wi-Fi router and never worry about it again, unless they are calling their internet provider to complain about an outage or slow connection. It might not be your provider though, your type of router, where it is placed, the bandwidth of the router and the number of devices you have connecting to it at home could be to blame for your Wi-Fi headaches.

1. Location, location, location. Router location plays a major role in the range and efficiency of a Wi-Fi network. Placing a router in a cabinet or an out of the way room might make your home look less cluttered but this also blocks the signal with doors and walls, plus everything inside your walls, from reaching the areas of your home where you are trying to use your devices. Use a Wi-Fi analytics app to check your Wi-Fi signal strength at each of the locations that you plan to put smart home devices. Be sure that the signal strength is at least 60% at each of those locations. Also check the signal strength where you normally sit to use your laptop, tablet and phone.

2. Flex Wi-Fi muscle. If you have a smaller home and need more coverage look for a high-power router that has more internal and external antennas than your current router model. If you have a larger home, consider using range extenders or a whole home Wi-Fi system.

3. Read the label. When shopping for a new router some of the key terms to look for include AC1900 as a minimum speed and MU-MIMO Technology. While your connection speeds will ultimately be determined by the level of speed you pay for through your internet service provider if you do not have a router equipped to handle the fastest speeds available today you will always experience a slower connection. MU-MIMO is desirable in homes with multiple devices and internet users. Instead of creating a queue of connection requests that are handled in order like a traditional router would do, MU-MIMO routers serve data to more devices at once without limiting speeds. This is critical in homes with smart devices as the total count of devices can add up quickly.

4. Make it ironclad. We all know that hackers have a variety of ways to trick us into giving them access to our digital accounts and methods of stealing account information and passwords from companies we do business with; however, that doesn’t mean we should just give up and let them into our networks freely. You need to make sure your network is secure as possible. If you are deciding between two routers and one offers added layers of security with virus protection and malware detection, for example, pick the one that is focused on security. Also, be sure to set up complex, hard to crack passwords. Never leave your Wi-Fi open without a password. Even guest networks should require one for access. Also, any time you have an issue with your email being hacked or one of your online accounts is breached, change your Wi-Fi password along with all your other accounts, just to be safe.

To recap;

1. Position your router in an optimal location, as central as possible.
2. Test your Wi-Fi signal strength with a signal strength tool, be sure to check all locations where smart devices will live.
3. If weak spots are found, try a High-Power Router or a Range Extender. If you want a seamless network, try a Whole Home Wi-Fi System.
4. Use a router that supports at least AC1900 speeds and MU-MIMO technology.
5. Keep your network secure with hard-to-crack passwords and built-in protection from other web threats like Malware.

via HomeToys

Update your Android now – many holes fixed including ‘BroadPwn’ Wi-Fi bug

Google’s July 2017 security fixes for Android are out.

As far as we can see, there are 138 bugs listed, each with its own CVE number, of which 18 are listed with the tag “RCE”.

RCE stands for Remote Code Execution, and denotes the sort of vulnerability that could be abused by a crook to run some sort of program sent in from outside – without any user interaction.

Generally speaking, RCE bugs give outsiders a sneaky chance to trigger the sort of insecure behaviour that would usually either pop up an obvious “Are you sure?” warning, or be blocked outright by the operating system.

In other words, RCEs can typically be used for so-called “drive-by” attacks, where just visiting a web page or looking at an email might leave you silently infected with malware.

The majority of the July 2017 RCE bugs in Android appear under the heading “Media framework”, which means they are Android flaws that are exposed when files such as images or videos are processed for display.

Like the infamous Stagefright bug in Android back in 2015, bugs of this sort can potentially be triggered by actions that don’t arouse suspicion, because images and videos can unexceptionably be embedded in innocent-looking content such as MMS messages and web pages.

There’s also an RCE bug in Android’s built-in FTP client – this one affects all Android versions still getting patches, from 4.4.4 all the way to 7.1.2.

We’re not sure how easy it is to trigger this bug, but we’re assuming it’s tricky to exploit because Google gives it only a moderate rating.

(Mild risk ratings are unusual for RCEs – they usually attract a high or critical rating because there’s a lot at stake if an RCE vulnerability does get exploited.)

“Proximate attacker” warning

The most intriguing bug this month, however, is an RCE flaw in the Broadcom Wi-Fi code that’s used by Android devices equipped with certain Broadcom wireless chips.

According to Google, “a proximate attacker [could] execute arbitrary code within the context of the kernel”.

In plain English, that means a crook who’s within Wi-Fi range could fire off booby-trapped network packets at your Wi-Fi hardware, trigger a bug in the wireless device…

…and end up with the same programmatic powers as the Android operating system on your device.

Given that the Android kernel is responsible for keeping your apps apart, for example by preventing the new fitness app you just installed from sneaking a look at your browsing history, a security compromise inside the kernel itself is about as serious as it gets.

Unfortunately, we can’t yet give you any real detail about the Broadcom RCE patch.

The researcher who found the bug will be presenting his findings at the end of July 2017 at the Black Hat 2017 conference in Las Vegas.

Until then, all we really have are teasers for his forthcoming talk, and a the funky-sounding name BroadPwn for the vulnerability.

(Understandably, no one who’s about to unveil a cool exploit at Black Hat wants to risk giving away a TL;DR version before the talk takes place – that would be like leaking the names of the Oscar winners a week before the awards ceremony.)

Interestingly, back in April 2017, a number of security issues in Broadcom wireless firmware were found to affect both iOS and Android devices – so if you’re an iPhone user, don’t be surprised if this month’s Google patches are quickly followed by a security patch from Apple, too.

What to do?

As usual, we’re going to repeat our usual mantra: “Patch early, patch often.”

What we can’t tell you is when the vendors of devices other than Google’s own Nexus and Pixel phones will be ready with their patches – if you’re worried, ask your vendor or the carrier who supplied your device.

Also, we can’t give you a handy list of the thousands of different Android devices out there that not only include Broadcom wireless cards but also have firmware that’s affected by the BroadPwn bug.

Once again, if you are worried, ask your supplier or mobile carrier.

Having said that, we can offer you Sophos Mobile Security for Android, 100% free of charge: although it won’t patch the abovementioned security holes for you, it will stop you from browsing to risky websites and from downloading booby-trapped adware and malware apps.

A good Android anti-virus not only makes it harder for crooks to push risky content onto your device but also stops them pulling you towards phishing pages, survey scams and other criminally oriented websites.

via nakedsecurity