Stronger Security Fences for Wi-Fi

Source: NewsFactor

When researchers first reported serious security problems with Wi-Fi wireless networks last year, the first response of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Association was to dismiss the threat as insignificant. With the arrival of new tools that let even the relatively unskilled eavesdrop on Wi-Fi networks, WECA has changed its tune.
Now with commendable alacrity, the trade group, renamed the Wi-Fi Alliance, has come up with a new standard that should solve the most pressing problems. While the new system, called Wi-Fi Protected Access, won't ship until early next year, it will still be out many months before the "official" solution, called 802.11i, that the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers is developing. And both businesses and consumers will be able to upgrade most existing hardware to the new standard as soon as it becomes available.

Wi-Fi has been beset by two interrelated problems. One is a serious flaw in the encryption Latest News about encryption system, called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), used to prevent eavesdroppers from monitoring. While described as offering a choice of 64- or 128-bit encryption -- meaning hackers would have to try billions upon billions of possible "keys" -- a design flaw meant only about a million keys were possible. That made it easy for computerized analysis to discover the password used to generate the key.