Home Network Vulnerabilities: Assessing Risks & Implementing Security

This report provides a comprehensive network security assessment of a home network, focusing on identifying vulnerabilities and recommending prevention measures. The assessment covers aspects such as software update applications, firewall and anti-virus software, wireless network encryption, password strength, and data backup practices. It highlights the importance of choosing a reliable router, changing default passwords, and monitoring DNS settings to mitigate risks. The report also discusses various threats to wireless communication, including rogue access points, denial-of-service attacks, and passive capturing, and suggests using VPNs for enhanced security. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources including past papers and solved assignments for students.

Running head: HOME NETWORK VULNERABILITIES
Home network vulnerabilities
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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HOME NETWORK VULNERABILITIES
1. Following is the network security assessment of my friend home network:
Control Evaluation procedure
Software update application Verifying that operation system automatic
update setting has been enabled.
Firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware
software installed, active, and frequently
updated
Verifying installation of software including
antivirus software.
Wireless network uses WPA2-AES
encryption, non-default SSID, and no
default management username & password
Using a wireless network scanning tool for
verifying non default SSID name and
encryption level.
Strong passwords are used. Strong passwords have been used in the
friend home network.
Do not open attachments, download
software, or click links from unknown or
untrusted sources.
My friend need not to open any
unauthorized websites and attachments over
network.
Regular backups of important data Backup of data and information has been an
important decision for securing data and
information.
2. There are various prevention measures for the home network vulnerabilities in the router:
Choose a reliable router: A reliable router helps in protecting data [packets by encrypting
them into packets. This secure data and information from being hacked by the attackers. A

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HOME NETWORK VULNERABILITIES
hacker target a router as all data packets are stored in the router and transferred from it to
different nodes connected in the network (Jose and Malekian 2015). Therefore, choosing a
reliable router might help in securing data packets in the home based router.
Changing default password: Passwords are important element in enhancing the security
of router. Therefore, after purchasing a reliable router, it is required to change the default
password proceeded with the router. Generally, default passwords of routers are “admin” or
“user”. Therefore, there is requirement to change the password and use Wi-Fi Protected Access
(WPA) 2- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as home router wireless encryption scheme.
Changing DNS settings: DNS settings of the router needs to be monitored on a regular
basis as they vulnerable to security risks. A user need to discover the DNS servers of the router
in the home (Jose and Malekian 2016). Therefore, the settings need to be changed accordingly.
This help in restricting malicious malwares from metering into the network.
3. There are various threats to the wireless communication as mentioned below:
Rouge Access Points: In this case, hacker targets wireless LANs for setting up rogue
point with the range of existing wireless LAN. This attack requires a bit of physical access to the
rouge access point to execute vulnerability in the wireless LANs (GUO et al. 2017). It captures
data and information from the wireless networks.
Denial of Service: It has been one of the simplest network that perpetrate by requiring
limiting access to services. The flooding of traffic has been only to limit of access to services for
wireless networks as signal interrupted from various techniques. When a wireless LAN is using
the 2.4 GHz band, interference can be caused by something as simple as a microwave oven or a
competing access point on the same channel.

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HOME NETWORK VULNERABILITIES
Passive Capturing: It can be performed by getting within range of target wireless LAN
and capturing data. This data has been used in number of things including attempting for
breaking existing security settings in analyzing non-secured traffic (Simpson, Roesner and
Kohno 2017). It has been impossible for preventing this type of attack as nature of wireless
network.
Use of virtual private network (VPN) has been helping in encryption and authentication as it
secure data from unauthorized person and hackers. The VPN help in enabling organizations to
use of Internet Infrastructure within ISP and devices remaining cost effective manner enabling
organizations in large capacity.

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HOME NETWORK VULNERABILITIES
References
Jose, A.C. and Malekian, R., 2015. Smart home automation security. SmartCR, 5(4), pp.269-285.
Jose, A.C., Malekian, R. and Ye, N., 2016. Improving home automation security; integrating
device fingerprinting into smart home. IEEE Access, 4, pp.5776-5787.
GUO, L., SU, G., LU, K., WENG, Y., ZHAO, J. and MA, X., 2017. Assessment of Beijing
Subway Network Vulnerability Based on Complex Network Theory. Industrial Safety and
Environmental Protection, 11, p.008.
Simpson, A.K., Roesner, F. and Kohno, T., 2017, March. Securing vulnerable home IoT devices
with an in-hub security manager. In Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops
(PerCom Workshops), 2017 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 551-556). IEEE.