COVERT Protocol Action #9: Harden your Home Network

Strengthen your home network so that your router and connected devices are resilient against attacks, unauthorised access, and privacy invasions. This includes upgrading to more secure firmware, encrypting local and internet traffic, and creating network-level protections that block unwanted connections while

allowing only legitimate ones. A hardened home network reduces the risk of compromise for all devices connected to it.

Steps to Harden Your Home Network:

1. Upgrade your router firmware or hardware: Replace or upgrade your existing router with one that supports secure, up-to-date, customizable firmware such as OpenWRT, which provides advanced security features, more frequent updates, and strong configuration options compared to many stock router firmwares.

2. Enforce strong Wi-Fi encryption: On your router (especially one running OpenWRT), enable current security standards such as WPA3 or at least WPA2 for wireless networks. Older unsecured modes greatly increase vulnerability to eavesdropping.

3. Set strong administrative credentials: Change the default router admin password to a unique, strong passphrase and disable remote administration over the internet. Default credentials are easily discovered and exploited.

4. Configure network-level VPN: Install and configure a VPN connection at the router level so that all traffic leaving your home network is encrypted and protected from eavesdroppers on public networks and your ISP. Router-level VPN ensures devices that don’t natively support VPN software still benefit from encrypted internet traffic.

5. Segment your network: Create separate network segments or VLANs for trusted devices, guests, and IoT devices so that a compromise in one segment (e.g., insecure IoT) does not easily spread to other critical devices.

Recommended tools:

OpenWRT routers -

GL.iNet Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) - Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 Home Router

GL.iNet Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) - Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router

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