In today’s world, securing business data has to be top-of-mind. You’ve read the news about network breaches at retail giants such as Target and Home Depot, and the list goes on and on. In these cases, hackers were able to breach security that was put in place and steal customer information from the network. This type of data breach could be catastrophic for a small business. If you’re handing out your business WiFi password, you should immediately stop the practice and change the password.
Giving your WiFi password to guests is like giving them the keys to the store.
At coffee shops, restaurants, and retail stores, guests are freely given the password to connect to WiFi. This type of access allows anyone to openly browse the network. As a result, an intrusive guest now has access to point-of-sale systems, printers, credit card machines and back-office systems. In addition, customers can “see” other guest devices that are connected to the network. For obvious reasons, this is bad.
Most off-the-shelf or ISP-provided WiFi equipment was not designed for guest access and is extremely insecure. WiFi with “guest access” is designed for home WiFi systems, where there may be shared printers or other shared resources. However, offering WiFi as a guest amenity should not allow sharing between devices. It should offer the guest one thing and one thing only – safe and secure Internet access.
Rather than giving away your WiFi password, consider implementing a captive portal system with WiFi marketing enabled. Not only will your in-house network be more secure, you will be able to customize the login experience for your guests, collect user demographics, and use your existing WiFi network to increase customer loyalty.
Smart WiFi with device isolation helps secure your network and blocks devices from “seeing” each other. In addition, Smart WiFi gives you control over how much data your guests can use and it allows you to adjust the time that they’re allowed online. Take control of your business guest WiFi today.