Your Local Area Network is No Longer Private

This article will explain why your Local Area Network (LAN) may no longer be as private as you think. I will also give you a guide on what to do to change this back to way it should be … private!

Networking 101

There are on two types of network that you need to know about here. The first is the Local Area Network (LAN) which is the one inside your house. The other is simply the “Internet”, which is conventionally called the Wide Area Network (WAN) or the public network.

The important distinction is the everybody can see everything happening on the public network, but nobody should be able to see into, or access, your house network. This is how it was originally designed and still the way it works today. Unfortunately, in order to do some things online requires you to open your private network to various parts of the public network and this is where the problem starts.

These two types of networks are physically connected via a single device commonly supplied by your broadband provider called a modem/router. Your modem/router will clearly show you a “LAN” and “WAN” symbol on the back for connections to the two types of network.

All of your computer and smart devices, connect to your LAN, either with Ethernet cable (wired) or via a WiFi access point (wireless), usually built into the modem/router.

WiFi

Wired systems are relatively safe from harm in a household. Wireless systems (WiFi), on the other hand, allow device connection at a distance. The connection distances today, can be many hundreds of metres. This is well within the range of passing pedestrians, people at the front door, drones or passing cars.

Breaking into a WiFi system is whole complex subject, but for the purpose of this article, consider your home “WiFi”, to be a potential weakness, in your private network.

On Your LAN You Make All The Choices

The good news is that you can decide how vulnerable you want to make your private network.

• You are the one purchasing the equipment for installation on that network.
• You are the one letting people use it at home.
• You are also the one who gives permission to others from public network to access your equipment on your private network.
• You are the one who adds your equipment to the Internet of things (IoT).

Steps to Keep Your Home Network Private

The steps below cover many specific things that you can do to ensure your LAN remains private.

Remember that it takes only a single “device” to breach the LAN and open the whole network up to the world.

1. Review the settings on your house Internet modem/router. Most modem/routers supplied by your broadband provider have reasonable security set up by default, however, there are steps you can take to improve the defaults.
2. If you have an option, always purchase network equipment that can be physically plugged into your LAN with an Ethernet cable. Do this, even if the device has an option of connection via WiFi.
3. Avoid purchasing devices which require an “online account” in order to be configured to connect to your LAN. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to decide whether you are connecting to a “bad player” or a “good player”. I recommend that you research carefully before powering on your new “network connected” device and creating a new account on their system.
4. Don’t purchase any devices which require an “online account” in order to function on day-to-day basis, let alone be connected to your LAN. The worst examples of this type of device are the cheap CCTV cameras sold for home security, or baby monitoring, etc. These devices are very popular private network intrusion devices, as they operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their misuse can potentially allow full private data sharing, control of all of your smart devices and basically provide anybody with full unauthorised access to everything connected to your LAN.
5. If you need to have WiFi at home, reconfigure your modem/router to disable “SSID” broadcast. In most cases, the SSID is printed on the device, so in order to connect to it wirelessly, simply type in the “network name”, rather than “scan for available networks”. This works perfectly and your neighbours will never know you have WiFi. In addition to this, I would highly recommend changing the default WiFi password to a much longer one with a high level of complexity, much like you would for a good online account password.
6. Remember that your PC is connected to your LAN in order to access the Internet. It is a very powerful IoT device and is generally considered the second highest risk item, after the modem/router, for ingress to your LAN. I have published a number of articles to cover how to minimise the risk here, but in summary, removing MS Windows, using a web browser such as Brave, will point you in the right direction.
7. Don’t install any “smart home” equipment, or “home automation” devices that require a working Internet connection to setup or operate. All of the systems that are available for domestic use today, break all of my safety recommendations, in this article, at once!
8. Don’t buy any voice activated technology devices. (Siri, Alexa, etc.) While it may be reputable companies such as Google and Apple, acting as the service providers of the live voice connection interpretation and control, the device manufacturer is doing the relaying of information. Eavesdropping, or extra controls operations are expected to by done by those manufacturers in those devices, so your LAN is again potentially totally open to abuse. (by “bad players”)

Testing Your Home Network Privacy

Since breaching your LAN is such a serious issue, I would recommend that you do a test/audit on your entire LAN system once you have installed a new device to your network.

1. Turn off your broadband modem/router.
2. Wait for 15 minutes.
3. Check that everything works as expected. This will take time.
   • Go to each device and run a few basic operations and see if behaves normally and is able to perform its intended function.
   • If a device stops working, you have a potential problem. Investigate that device. This is your LAN’s next point of weakness.
4. If everything behaves exactly as you anticipated, then are a free to go to the next step.
5. Turn on your broadband modem/router.