NSA Presents “Best Practices for Keeping Your Home Network Secure”

‘Best Practices for Keeping Your Home Network Secure’ is a new 8-page document published by the National Security Agency to help home users in keeping their system secure and protected.

"The cyber threat is no longer limited to your office network and work persona. Adversaries realize that targets are typically more vulnerable when operating from their home network since there is less rigor associated with the protection, monitoring, and maintenance of most home networks. Home users need to maintain a basic level of network defense and hygiene for both themselves and their family members when accessing the Internet."

The document is divided in 4 parts:

• Host-Based Recommendations
• Network Recommendations
• Operational Security (OPSEC)/Internet Behavior Recommendations
• Enhanced Protection Recommendations

The document contains some good recommendations for using the latest version of an operating system, keeping up-to-date on patches for OS and applications, install security software, and limiting the use of privilege (administrator) accounts.

I would be curious if a home "netizen" would read this document, fully understand it, and implement it? My hunch is that they will not read it!!! If they do, the average person will start getting lost at recommendation #4 - "Use a Web Browser with Sandboxing Capabilities" in the Host-Based Recommendations section or recommendation #4 "Implement an Alternate DNS Provider" in the Network Recommendations section. What does sandboxing and DNS mean to a home user? You might as well be talking in some form of intergalactic language.

While I appreciate the NSA's level of effort on this document I feel it has fallen short in being a useful document for the average home user.