Need for protection and risk analysis

Identification of values worthy of protection – what is important?

Welcome back. In order to effectively protect your home network, it is essential to understand what values are actually Worth protecting What is the potential impact of a security incident? This includes several dimensions:

• Personal data and privacy: This is often the most important value. It is about financial information, health data, personal communications (emails, messengers), location data and any other sensitive information that is transmitted or stored on the network. Loss or misuse of this data can lead to identity theft, financial damage or serious privacy interference. Let's go one step further, as soon as there is a company (even if it's just a mini-ancillary income) in the game, we're going to some more data Suddenly more important.
  
• Devices and systems: The Functionality and Integrity Smart home devices, security cameras, NAS systems, and other connected devices are essential. Failure, manipulation, or compromise of these systems can have a direct impact on everyday life, home security, and comfort. For example, a compromised camera could Live images to unauthorized persons or a tampered smart lock Access to the house enable.
  
• Internet availability: In an increasingly interconnected world, many households are heavily dependent on a stable and reliable Internet connection. Home office, online education, entertainment (streaming, gaming) and basic communication (VoIP telephony) are inconceivable without the Internet. A failure can lead to significant productivity losses and limitations in everyday life.

Charly shows how to set up a backup cleverly in the event of a failure:

Another fundamental principle that should be applied in the assessment of protection needs is that: Least privilege principle.

This principle states that each device, service and user should be granted only the minimum permissions and access rights strictly necessary for its proper functioning. The consistent application of this principle minimises potential harm in the event of compromise. For example, if a smart TV only needs Internet access, it should not have access to the NAS system on which personal documents are stored.

Frequently ignored risks and Level 92 traps: The invisible hurdles

Despite the importance of basic security measures, there are a number of risks that are often ignored or forgotten by home users for convenience or ignorance. These neglected aspects often represent the ‘Level 92’ traps that block the path to security. For routers, we have already looked at some of them in the last article. Of course, these also apply to most other devices in the home network.

• Regular firmware updates: The software on the devices in the home network (usually the firmware or its operating system) is continuously updated by manufacturers to close security gaps and improve performance. Nevertheless, these updates are often moved to ‘later’ or the automatic update function remains disabled. This is a significant security risk because known vulnerabilities that Exploited by attackers You could, stay open.
   
• Disabling UPnP (Universal Plug and Play): UPnP is a protocol that allows devices on the network to automatically open ports in the router to simplify configuration for applications such as online gaming or video streaming.
  For convenience, UPnP is often left enabled by default, although it is a Significant security risk represents. It allows malicious software or compromised devices to open backdoors into the home network without the user's knowledge or interaction.
   
• Use of guest access: Many users simply leave devices with the main Wi-Fi instead of the separate guest network to use. This results in potentially unsafe or untrusted devices (e.g. a visitor's smartphone with malware or even their own insecure IoT/smarthome device from the mail order of trust) gaining direct access to the private home network and possibly being able to scan or attack other devices.  
  
• Maintain the default password. Although it is considered a basic measure, the factory default password for access remains terrifyingly often. This is an open gateway for attackers who used to be able to compromise even accesses by simply using standard password lists. Thank goodness that time is now over.
  
• WLAN channel optimization: Many users leave their Wi-Fi on the standard channel, even if it is overloaded in densely populated areas. While this does not directly lead to a safety issue, it can significantly affect radio performance and speed.
  Poor performance can in turn lead to users disabling or weakening security functions (e.g. encryption) in order to allegedly obtain ‘more speed’, which unfortunately then again poses a direct security risk.  

These frequently ignored points are not minor failures, but quickly represent critical vulnerabilities that have the potential to undermine overall network security.

Similarly, a small percentage of neglected vulnerabilities in the home network – precisely those ‘forgotten or ignored’ points – can be responsible for a large proportion of potential security breaches.
For example, a single unpatched firmware (a small part of the maintenance effort) can lead to complete system compromises. This neglect creates disproportionate risks.

The Level 92 analogy does not fit perfectly here: Reaching level 92 is still ‘relatively’ easy, but the remaining ones – the critical 20 % Unfortunately, the effort that we had already read is often 80 years old.% take time – is the place where true security resilience is built. Resolving these remaining points leads to immense security improvements and brings the user much closer to security.

My tip: In this case, you should consider the effort rather sporty and sprint the last mile again, instead of resting. No one wants 100 here.% Security, it is even almost certain that absolute security does not exist – someone will crack any system at some point.
92% Solution: To achieve as much as possible without reinventing the wheel, we call it ‘as safe as possible’. Example: One second router cascaded behind the first one you can manage even better to get order in your own network.

TL:DR – What do I have to pay attention to?

This could be the questionnaire for today’s ‘homework’. Once you consciously walk through the booth and ask yourself such questions about the things that are ‘online’:

Is home automation available? Are there any other smart devices? Have the devices using Wi-Fi activated their security features? Are there still devices with the standard access data? Can any of these be accessed from the outside? Can I at least isolate one or the other device if I cannot secure it sufficiently? Should it be replaced in order not to take any risks? Can I use LeastPrivilege to restrict rights? And, of course, the all-time classic questions: When was the last time an update was made? Can they be updated at all?

Good luck!

Tomorrow we will take a closer look at 2FA/MFA as well as the network segmentation and in addition we will talk in detail about ideas for emergency plans. It also highlights for whom how much actually makes sense. Continue in the text