You may have seen recent headlines urging people to reboot their home internet routers. It’s good advice, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
The guidance reflects well-known, longstanding vulnerabilities in consumer networking equipment: unpatched firmware, default or weak administrative credentials, and exposed management interfaces. These aren’t new threats. Restarting your router may temporarily interrupt certain types of malicious activity, but it does nothing to address the conditions that allowed the threat in the first place.
For employees working remotely, your home network is a direct extension of your company’s environment. That means basic home network security hygiene isn’t just a personal matter, it’s a business one.
What you should do
If you haven’t recently reviewed your home router configuration, now is a good time:
Change your router’s default administrator credentials. Most routers ship with well-known default usernames and passwords that are trivially easy to exploit. If you’ve never changed yours, change them today.
Apply available firmware updates. Router manufacturers regularly release security patches. Check your router’s admin panel or the manufacturer’s website to confirm you’re running the latest version.
Disable remote management. Unless you have a specific reason to access your router remotely, this feature should be turned off.
Use a strong Wi-Fi password with WPA2 or WPA3 encryption. If you’re still using WPA or WEP, it’s time to upgrade.
Restart your router periodically. While it won’t fix underlying vulnerabilities, it remains a low-effort, low-impact precaution.
Replace aging equipment. If your router is several years old and no longer receiving security updates from the manufacturer, it’s time to consider a replacement.
The bigger picture
Cybersecurity doesn’t stop at the office firewall. As remote and hybrid work has become the norm, the security of home networks has become a real consideration for organizations of all sizes. The same threat actors targeting enterprise systems are increasingly exploiting weak home network configurations as an entry point.
At BIG, we work with construction firms to build security strategies that account for the full environment: office, field, and home. If your organization is evaluating its exposure or looking to strengthen its security posture, we’re here to help.