Page 85 - Computing E-Book Grade 7

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3.7. Data and Network Security

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Wi-Fi
Protected Access II (WPA2), and Wi-Fi $

Protected Access 3 (WPA3) are three
security protocols and security certification All About Cloud

programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to
secure wireless computer networks.

Different types of wireless security protocols
were developed for home wireless networks

protection. Not only do the wireless security
protocols prevent unwanted parties from

connecting to your wireless network, but also encrypt your private data sent over the
airwaves.

WEP-Wired Equivalent Privacy

WEP was developed for wireless networks and approved as a Wi-Fi security standard

in September 1999. WEP was supposed to offer the same security level as wired
networks, however, there are a lot of well-known security issues in WEP, which is

also easy to break and hard to configure. Despite all the work that has been done to
improve the WEP system it still is a highly vulnerable solution.

WPA-Wired Protected Access

For the time the 802.11i wireless security standard was in development, WPA was used
as a temporary security enhancement for WEP. One year before WEP was officially

abandoned, WPA was formally adopted. Most modern WPA applications use a pre-
shared key (PSK), most often referred to as WPA Personal, and the Temporal Key

Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for encryption. WPA Enterprise uses an authentication server
for keys and certificates generation. Still, WPA2, WPA’s newest version, is more secure

and even better than WPA. WPA2 is the latest and strongest wireless security and
encryption standard. Almost all modern routers support it and you should definitely

use this option to protect your home network.

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