IT Announcements

Router Tip of the Day - Encryption

December 16, 2022

What the?!?! When faced with more acronyms your brain probably shuts down for a few seconds. Especially when applying those to cybersecurity. It's ok, we get it. We do to! Among all of the critical acronyms, the ones on your home router are fundamentally important to protecting your home network. These acronyms refer to ‘encryption protocols’. These are the methods your laptop accesses your router and then the internet. To make life easier, here are a few short definitions of the most common. 

Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3): This is the most secure, and uses the best type of encryption (AES) possible for today's computing technology. This is also the same kind of encryption that the federal government uses.

Wi-Fi Protected Access Version 2 (WPA2): Next best thing ever! 

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA): This is the meh! kind of encryption, and if you’re provided a choice, choose WPA-PSK. While this isn’t the best, at least it's better than the last choice!

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP): This is the first ever encryption used in home routers, and has not kept up with current technology. It has a lot of vulnerabilities. Please don’t use this one if you have the option to use the other three! 

There are many more settings you can implement to ‘harden’ your router. Just be careful, some can break your own access making you reset and start all over! If you’d like more information on what settings to change, please visit the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.

Your UA Security Matters team will be presenting a “Router Tip of the Week” series of articles covering different topics on how to protect your home network. However, here is a link to a comprehensive discussion on securing your wireless internet from the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) that will guide you through more steps. 

 UA Security Matters is a system-wide effort to increase awareness on cybersecurity topics. For more information, please visit the UA Security Matters website or email us.