What's WEP, WPA and WPA2 Wireless Encryption

What's WEP, WPA and WPA2 Wireless Encryption 

Understanding the differences of encryption protocols then implementing them with the advanced features would support your router more secure. Even if you know how to secure the Wi-Fi network, but probably you may not know the encryption acronyms, which is little bit puzzling! 

This post will highlighting the differences between encryption standards such as WEP, WPA and WPA2. 

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), erroneously called as Wireless Encryption Protocol, is a security algorithm for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Introduced in September 1999, its intention was to provide data confidentiality comparable to that of a traditional wired network. This is widely used Wi-Fi security algorithm in the world. It is recognizable by the key of 10 or 26 hexadecimal digits, which was the first security choice presented to users by router configuration tools.  

The first version of WEP weren’t particularly strong, because U.S. restrictions on various cryptographic technology led the manufacturers to restrict their devices to only 64-bit encryption. When the restrictions were lifted, it was increased to 128-bit. 

However, the introduction of 256-bit WEP encryption, 128-bit remains one of the most common implementations. Revisions to the algorithm and numerous security flaws were found in the WEP standard, which allow easier exploitation and crack WEP passwords in minutes that deprecate in favor to newer standards. 

In 2003 the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that WEP had been superseded by WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), and its configuration is  WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key). The keys used by WPA are 256-bit, a significant increase over the 64-bit and 128-bit keys used in the WEP system. Some significant changes implemented on WPA, included message integrity checks with Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), a stopgap security protocol used in the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard. Later TKIP was superseded by Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), an encryption of specification for electronic data. 

In 2004, with the ratification of full 802.11i standard (i.e. WPA2), the IEEE declared that  WEP have been deprecated as they fail to meet their security goals and WPA has been officially superseded by WPA2. The significant changes between WPA and WPA2 was the use of AES algorithms and the introduction of CCMP (Counter Cipher Mode with Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol), an encryption protocol designed for Wireless LAN products that implement the standards of the IEEE 802.11i amendment to the original IEEE 802.11 standard, which is a replacement for TKIP and still preserved in WPA2 as well interoperability with WPA. 

From this point, you may choose either the best encryption method or the one such as WEP, which is at the top of the list. 

However, following is the ranking list to the Wi-Fi security scheme that available on any modern router, which arranged from worst to best:

• Open Network (No Security)
• WEP
• WPA + TKIP
• WPA + TKIP/AES
• WPA + AES
• WPA2 + AES

Once you arranged your router to WEP, then it's level of security is so low such as a chain link fence, where anyone can easily just climb over it! Deploying to another may enhance the security more powerful and you'll be sitting pretty with a secured Wi-Fi network.