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WEP is not useless
WEP has not been modified at all. In fact, the last modifications were WEP2, which brought about the 128bit keys. That was like in 2000 or 2001. WEP is just as insecure now as it was then, if not more so.
Now, there has been a standard in the works for a while. 802.11i . Since 802.11i was in the development stages - WiFi alliance took a lot of the 802.11i pieces and implemented what we know as WPA. WPA is essentially a beta version of 802.11i (or a subset). The 802.11i standard has been finalized, and this is one of the most recent articles I can find (June 2004): 802.11i Security Specification Finalized But it is worth noting that 802.11i is the finalization (and imporvements) of what was started with WPA - and has nothing to do realistically with WEP. The other question is when 802.11i will make it into vendors products, and if many of the current products will be firmware updateable. (It seems as though they should be, since WPA is a good chunk of 802.11i). However, using WPA with a GOOD (like 32 character random) password is reasonably secure. 802.11i will improve on that. But the simple fact is that if you are using airwaves for your tellecommunication - it can be hacked. The issue is how much effort does it take. If the work level vs. payoff is too high, then the cracker will move on. That is the same with any security, even physical security. Any door can be broken down if you want to bad enough - but what is the effort and risk vs. reward ratio? At my house? Not much. ;)
802.11i needs crypto-acceleration
WPA is a subset of 802.11i that doesn't require hardware acceleration. It was designed so that existing cards could be upgraded from WEP to WPA with a firmware update. Full 802.11i support requires cryptography-accelerated hardware, so unfortunately, it isn't just a firmaware update. |
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