* Wi-Fi Alliance certifies several products that comply with new security standard
The Wi-Fi Alliance this week unveiled a list of the first products it has given the Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 certification.
WPA2 is a higher security standard than its predecessor, WPA. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the primary improvement with the second generation is that it supports a better encryption technique, Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES.
Security has long concerned potential users of wireless LANs, also known as Wi-Fi. The original security standard for WLANs, Wired Equivalent Privacy, was found to be deficient a couple of years ago. At the time, critics charged that it was difficult to manage keys in WEP, that the keys would seldom be changed because of the difficulty, and that authentication messages could be easily forged. If someone with any skill wanted to break in, they probably could.
Still, WEP is better than nothing – which is what many WLANs use today. WEP will at least keep out the casual snoopers.
WPA was the replacement, an effort led by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It addresses the issues around keys, making them more dynamic.
WPA2 is based on the IEEE’s 802.11i amendment to the 802.11 standard, which was ratified on July 29, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance. The addition of AES to create the WPA2 standard means that it complies with certain government security requirements. WPA2 is backwards-compatible with WPA.
The alliance says the first WPA2 products are expected to be available from vendors later this month. Products that have been certified this week include an access point and adapter from Atheros, reference designs from Broadcom, an access point from Cisco, an access point from Instant802 Networks, the Pro/Wireless 2915 Network Connection from Intel and a Realtek NIC.
