What is Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)?
The Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol is a security mechanism. Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) 802.11b is part of the IEEE standard (IEEE). New York City is the headquarters of IEEE, which is the world’s biggest professional association for electronic and electrical engineers. It is based mostly in New Jersey, where it does most of its business. Wi-Fi 802.11b, on the other hand, offers a level of security and privacy equivalent to that of a wired local area network (LAN).
Data sent over a Wi-Fi network is protected by WEP. Because it has an encryption capability, wireless links between devices and access points are protected from being made susceptible. End-to-End Encryption, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and Authentication are all made feasible on WLANs because of this technology.
In September 1999, the Wi-Fi industry certified WEP as a security standard. Its earliest iterations employed just 64-bit encryption, making it less secure. Because more digits are used in the encryption key, the greater the level of encryption, the more safe it is. In spite of being able to store more data, it is nonetheless ineffective.
WEP’s vulnerabilities were progressively exposed as computational power rose. It is necessary to update or replace systems that use WEP. Indeed, WEP was formally phased out by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2004.
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What is the difference between Wired Equivalent Privacy and Wi-Fi Protected Access?
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) has taken the role of WEP as the standard for wireless encryption. Wep was officially phased out in 2003, a year before it was accepted in its current form publicly. WPA-Pre-Shared Key (PSK) employs a 256-bit key in its most popular setup.
As a result of the message integrity checks in WPA, it is possible to identify whether or not packets were intercepted or manipulated by attackers. TKIP, which utilises a per-packet key mechanism that is more secure than the fixed key system used by WEP, is also followed. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) eventually supplanted TKIP (AES).
TKIP is used by both WPA and WEP, despite the fact that WPA is a vast improvement over WEP. Because of this, WEP components that had been recycled might still be exploited.
What Are the Differences Between Wired Equivalent Privacy and Wi-Fi Protected Access II?
In 2006, WPA2 (Wireless Protected Access II) succeeded WPA. WPA2 mandated the use of the AES algorithm, in contrast to WPA. There was also a new mode called CCMP in WPA2 called Counter Cipher Mode that replaced TKIP. WPA2 systems, on the other hand, use TKIP as a backup and may thus be used with WPA-enabled devices.
Security technologies like WPA2 require that attackers have access to a secure Wi-Fi network before they may target other devices on the network. As a result, WPA2 security flaws affect only business networks.
Is it Better to Use Wired Equivalent Privacy, Wi-Fi Protected Access, or Wi-Fi Protected Access II?
It’s possible that WPA2 is the greatest option for securing your business or home network now that network protocols like WPE, WPA, and WPA2 have all been improved. Disabling Wireless Protected Setup (WPS), a susceptible component of WEP and WPA, is still possible with the newer WPA2.
Setting up a network should be done with WPA2 + AES and WPS disabled. It is sad that WEP is so weak that it is compared to chain-link fencing in terms of security. Anyone who wants to get in may just climb over the barrier and get in.
Conclusion
Cloning, packet sniffing, wardriving, and MAC spoofing attacks are all possible with WEP devices. Insecure Wi-Fi access points and routers can be used by hackers to gain access to target networks and steal confidential data.
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