Is Your Domestic WiFi Offering Enough Security?

“You get what you pay for” often rings true, and you can’t put a price on security. Taking a look at some of the issues that come with domestic-style WiFi and routers, and why it’s a bad idea for businesses.

Breaking news?

Earlier this month, news broke that one of the UK’s biggest household WiFi providers had been taken over by a serious software bug. The damage of this hijacking affected roughly 6 million users and took 18 months to resolve.

You may be wondering, why is this an issue? 6 different models were affected and this was done by reconfiguring the routers by sending the owner a link to a malicious website in a phishing email.

The issue here is, once they have the router they have all the information in it, including passwords (bank passwords, online shopping logins, email addresses, and more). All of this leaves you extremely vulnerable to the risk of fraud, and with intellectual organized criminal groups running this sort of attack, it’s not something you want to be dealing with.

Why is this a big deal for businesses?

When we think about the time spent using our WiFi at home (minus those who work remotely) it’s not that much once you take away our 40 winks and 8-hour shifts. Businesses on the other hand are using a lot more data and by a lot more people. Connecting work devices and personal devices to a single network means a lot of information being processed, and more importantly more data being stored.

Let’s look at a hotel as an example, credit card details, passport details, addresses, emails, telephone numbers, the list goes on… if this was lost in a data breach, that poses a huge GDPR threat to this business.

Many businesses inhospitality &leisure have large amounts of customer information and databases stored in their network from gyms, restaurants, leisure centres, hotels, and more. So the security risk to a business compared to a single household is huge!

Taking customers into consideration, not only does having a business WiFi come with marketing benefits, it’s also more secure for your customers to use. Passwords, account details, bank details are all much more secure in a business-suitable WiFi, by reassuring customers you invest in providing a secure connection will encourage them to spend more time in your venue.

Price VS quality?

No doubt domestic kit is more affordable, but it’s just not suitable for any business to run on this type of network.�

One of the main benefits for businesses when it comes to upgrading their WiFi is that is undeniably more reliable. Cisco-Meraki equipment enables administrators (Astaris) to manage and solve issues remotely and spend less time on site. Having this advantage means less downtime, less profit loss, no engineers taking up space in your venue and interrupting your busy service. This also reduces on-site costs, it’s a win win!

There is no doubt that the pandemic has encouraged outside dining, drinking, and more during the summer and spring seasons. This means taking your once inside system, outside. PDQs, tills, music systems, and more all need to be able to work just as well outside.

There is no option to add wireless access points with domestic routers, no option to troubleshoot and see where interference is coming from, and overall a certainly less reliable network overall.�

Providing a strong WiFi connection is essential to providing a good customer experience. From your staff being able to provide a seamless service to browsing the web and sharing their experience with their friends and followers online (securely of course) investing that little bit more into a business-grade WiFi network is worth every penny.

What’s available to me on the market?

Here atAstaris, we use the Cisco-MerakiWiFi kit. It is top of the range and designed for business environments. Scalable to accommodate any business depending on shape or size, there is no doubt a solution available for your business.

Astaris’ expert team of IT engineers can make suggestions specific to your business and its needs to create the best IT network for your business. Some of the benefits include�

• Reliable wireless coverage, inside & outside
• Fast, secure & scalable across your entire venue
• Customer data collection formarketing
• Fully supported 24/7
• One monthly internet fee to host all your devices

Some of the benefits of using Cisco-Meraki technology in particular are:

• Advanced security
• Next generation WiFi
• Creates engaging digital experiences
• Simple deployment and management

Upgrading to a suitable WiFi is simple & easy, visit our business WiFi page to find out more.

How real is the threat to businesses?

Not so long ago, a large worldwide chain of hotels faced a huge data breach that exposed an estimated 339 million records across the world. As a result of this attack, the hotel branch was fined £18.4 million.

Breaking GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) can result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual turnover (whichever is higher) upgrading to a secure WiFi network doesn’t seem too bad now, does it?

So why not get in touch today and see how we can help your business?