Arlo Logo

Why does my Arlo base station broadcast its SSID and is that a security risk?

This article applies to:

The Arlo base station broadcasts its SSID to enable Arlo Wire-Free cameras to sync wirelessly to it.

This practice is safe for these reasons:

  • To join the base station's network, you must know both the SSID and the password. The base station password is not provided anywhere. For example, this is very different than a wireless router, which includes the router's SSID and password on a label on the device. This makes the base station's network more secure than most home wireless networks.
  • The base station uses the WPA2 security protocol to encrypt traffic and a long password to deter brute force attacks.

Arlo does not hide the Arlo base station SSID because it provides very little security. Tools are commonly available to discover hidden SSIDs.