Question

For this discussion, noting the extent to which we are connected to the Internet, at home, while in class, even in flight, what is your approach to protecting your privacy when online? What measures do you take to safeguard your computer and other devices? And at home, detail and explain what router security settings you chose to apply. For this discussion, noting the extent to which we are connected to the Internet, at home, while in class, even in flight, what is your approach to protecting your privacy when online? What measures do you take to safeguard your computer and other devices? And at home, detail and explain what router security settings you chose to apply.

Your initial reply should be 2-3 paragraphs in length (about 200-250 words).

Answer 1

From the last 2 Decades, the Internet became a very important part of life. Use of the internet is no longer a thing of luxury, It is now one of basic utility. If the internet goes down for even short interval then it costs millions to the economy.
Although the Internet has so many benefits, it also has some drawbacks. Now we live our lives online and posts every activity. Then this confidential information mustn't fall in the wrong hands and we have to protect our privacy from spying eyes.
For protecting ourselves from bad peoples, who want to spy on us and steal our private information, we have to be careful and have to take some security measures.

Sometimes we need to access the internet at a public place like a classroom, flight or railway station. Then we have to take these security measures.
-> VPN - VPN or Virtual Private Network creates an encrypted tunnel from our mobile or laptop to VPN server So that anyone who will access to our network stream will only see gibberish data. But VPN will see our data, So we have to choose VPN carefully and have to check the VPN provider's reputation and Privacy Policy.
-> HTTPS - HTTPS uses SSL/TLS to send and receive encrypted data from websites to our device. We have to always use the HTTPS-based websites, So that connection will be encrypted. And at least while sending confidential data like password make sure URL is https://.

We have to harden our device for the fight against any kind of vulnerabilities and attacks. We have to take many steps for hardening our devices, For Ex.
-> Antivirus - We have to install a good antivirus for the fight against malware. We have to install a good antivirus after thorough research. And we have to keep the antivirus database up-to-date for avoiding new vulnerabilities.
-> Remove Unwanted Software's - Keep only trustworthy and important software's, this will decrease attack surface.
-> UPDATE - Keep your system up-to-date for security patches. Almost all big software like Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and many more publish security updates regularly to fix vulnerabilities, that's why we need to keep our system and all software up-to-date.
-> Close Ports - Our devices have many ports open like port 25 for receive and send SMTP mails. We need to keep unused ports closed.
-> Firewall - We have to install a host-based firewall and configure So that only desired data transfer occurs.

After purchasing a new router we have to make many appropriate changes for hardening router from attacks, Ex.
-> Change Default Password - Router's default password can be seen on the official website of the router manufacturer. And anyone can access this information. So we have to change the router's default username and password.
-> Strong Encryption - If the router also creates a wireless connection then make sure it uses strong encryption like WPA/WPA2 instead of using old and weak encryption like WEP.
-> Firewall - We also need to configure the router's firewall to avoid unwanted connections.
-> Limit Number of Devices - If we are sure about the number of devices than we need to set a number of devices in the router setting.
-> MAC Filtering - We can enable MAC filtering So that devices only whose MAC address in the list can connect to Network.
-> Disable Extra Features - If we are not using features like WPS or UPnP then we can disable them.