Get your home router under control.
We have enough to worry about these days. Some jerk getting you to download malware to your phone or computer to scoop up all your financial data and passwords should NOT be one of them.
Change the default password to your home router.
Routers come with a basic default password that never gets changed — just Google “Linksys default router password” and stare in horror at how easy it is to get into the entirety of your system.
To change the password, go to your home router's admin portal from your browser. The most common routers and their web addresses are listed here, but if you can’t find the brand of router you have, try Googling “router admin login” and the brand name of the router, i.e., “router admin login spectrum” or “router admin login huawei.” Don't be alarmed if its just a series of numbers separated by dots. You should be prompted to log in - use the default username and password for your router's brand. If your brand isn’t listed at the link above, here are two lists of default router usernames and passwords.
Now that you’re in, you'll have to tool around to find the username and password reset, use any help or FAQ functions, or Google for instructions specific to the router.
Changing the username and password doesn’t have to be complex. The password should be long; we recommend 18 characters. And we don't think it's a bad idea to write the password down on a post-it and leave it in your desk drawer - just this once. You can also save it in your password manager, which is a much better idea. :)
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