As a business owner who also  spends time working from home, do you make assumptions about  your home’s wireless network security? Between your home and business, chances are your home wireless security is lacking. This can prove to be a serious liability.

WiFi security at home tends to be more lax. It isn’t something business owners worry about. You feel safe at home and you might assume since your business’s network is locked down tight, your data is secure. When an intruder wants to access your business’s proprietary information, they’re going to search for the easiest point of entry.

That is often the home. Intruders are looking for information they can profit from, including financial and identity-related documents. The fact is, there are people who roam around searching for unprotected or poorly protected wireless access.

Never assume your data—personal or business—isn’t accessible. You may inadvertently share critical data without realizing it. You may share files among colleagues and employees and simply forget to turn off sharing permissions. You may place documents and files in a publicly accessible folder. Data-sharing is convenient when you need it, but a liability when it’s readily accessible.

What can you do to protect yourself and your company assets?

• Be aware of when you’re sharing data. If you have any files in a public folder, move them to a more secure location.

• Use a strong password for all your wireless networks. A string of letters, numbers and symbols about 14 characters long is ideal.
• Use WPA2 security. Make sure your router is set up correctly. If you are using WEP or WPA security, change it as soon as possible.
• Change your network’s name (SSID). Routers include a default name, and keeping the default tells potential intruders lax security measures may be in place.

And ask yourself how protected your network—and your data—really is.