Cybersecurity@home

Safeguarding Your Digital Haven: The Importance of Cybersecurity at Home

1. Secure your home Wi-Fi

Every home router comes with a default admin login and password. Ensure you change this by using a strong and unique password that is only known to you and your household. If you do not change the default login of your router, anyone that connects to your network is able to access your router settings and make changes to your network.

Most routers have their passwords printed on the router itself. By changing this to something more secure, you ensure that no one has access to your router settings.

2. Be aware of scams

When working from home, our guard tends to drop as we feel better protected in our everyday environment. Unfortunately, cybercriminals use this to their advantage by targeting people through phishing attacks and scams. These scams come in the form of email, phone calls and messages. Protect yourself by exercising the following:

  • Being cautious of “urgent” correspondence that asks you perform an action in a new way.
  • Being wary of requests for personal information, passwords, or banking details
  • Being cautious of emails or messages asking you to click on a link or download an attachment without context in the message.
  • Check with the sender or organisation by searching their public details online and contacting them directly for verification

3. Update software on devices

By keeping all devices on your home network up to date with the latest software versions, you are ensuring they are protected from the latest security issues. Enabling automatic updates will save you the hassle of having to constantly check when new updates are available to download.

4. Connect to the University of Melbourne VPN

When working away from campus, ensure you are connected to the University Virtual Private Network (VPN) when accessing University systems and information. By connecting to the University VPN, you are enabling the following protections for you and your device:

  • Cybersecurity tools that detect and block suspicious activity
  • Secure and encrypted connection to the University network