9

The majority of security breaches against the average consumer are not from direct attack on the router. Worms, viruses, ransomware, malware, etc. generally come in via emails, website links, downloaded files, applications, USB drives, etc. that you bring in and infect your devices from the inside.

There is only so much security that your router can provide overall, from the network perimeter. If you do all the basic things I suggested in my previous post, then you should get “pretty good security” from your router at little or no cost. No single item, including disabling features, nmap scans and strong passwords, will provide perfect protection, but they are free and together are worthwhile.

The average consumer cannot spend the $$$ to secure their environment like governments, financial institutions and larger corporations, so each of us should evaluate the value of their assets vs. risks and consider the cost-benefit tradeoffs. Personally, I do the basic things above on my router, computers, smartphones and other devices and I am careful about opening unknown emails, websites, files, etc. I encrypt really confidential files and/or have strong passwords to websites.

VPN is mainly for privacy, more than for security, to prevent others from knowing your data and location. I only run VPN selectively on my computers, not on the router, because:

  1. When banks/financial institutions and certain websites (including gmail) notice your VPN IP is from a suspicious location, they request 2FA or block you.
  2. Certain websites may just block access from your VPN IP
  3. I enable Killswitch when using VPN, so that Internet access is blocked if the VPN connection drops even though the Internet connection is still active. When this happens, other members of my household may freak out that “the world has fallen apart”.
  4. VPN app installed on computers provide encryption starting from the client devices, not just from the router.