Encryption Standards

 

Encryption Standards

 

·         Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

WPA is a security standard that protects wireless networks using Wi-Fi from unauthorized access and was introduced in 2003. WPA replaced Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) because of the stronger security algorithm used which is Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) which uses a 256-bit keys compared to WEP which uses 64-bit-128bit keys. Although it is a stronger encryption method, it is still hackable but it is more difficult. WPA supports older software.

·         WPA2

WPA2 is similar to WPA but with more advanced encryption strategy and was introduced in 2004 shortly after WPA. WPA2 allows for the use of TKIP and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES allows for 128-bit,192-bit and 256-bit keys and is considered “un-hackable”. WPA2 uses a lot of processing power so hardware needs to be capable of handling that. WPA2 only supports new software.

WPA                                                                           WPA2

Created in 2003	Created in 2004
Is supported by TKIP	Is supported by TKIP and AES
Replaces WEP	Replaces WAP
Supports older software	Supports only new software

 

WPA2 is also divided in two modes, WPA2 personal and WPA2 enterprise. WPA2 personal is used for home networks and WPA2 enterprise is more business used. WPA2 enterprise is more complicated to set up but it offers individualized and centralized control over Wi-Fi access as for WPA2 personal does not offer these options. Also WPA2 assigns user login credentials in order to connect to the network and WPA2 personal will only use passphrase for all the users to allow access to the network.