Wireless WPA3 – Released with biggest security update

Wireless Networks have become ubiquitous in today’s world. Millions of people use it worldwide every day at their homes, offices and public hotspots to logon to the Internet and do both personal and professional work.

Well, of course, you knew it all along, it’s because the average user may not be aware of the security features or precautions on the device or they may be computer literate but not know how to implement wireless security. This is where WPA3 comes into play.

Wi-Fi Alliance just released a new protocol for wireless (Wi-Fi Certified WPA3) for both personal and enterprise networks which enhances the security of wireless networks.

Main Features of WPA3 –

More Robust Authentication
Increased cryptographic Strength
More Security as compared with WPA2 networks
Required use of PMF (Protected Management Frames)
Disallow outdated legacy protocols

“WPA3 takes the lead in providing the industry’s strongest protections in the ever-changing security landscape,” said by Edgar Figueroa, President and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance.

For WPA3 Personal –

It brings better protection to all users by providing more robust authentication even when users choose passwords that fall short of typical complexity recommendations which is enabled through SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals) and is replaced by PSK in WPA2-PSK.

WPA3 also adds an extra layer of security in which it protects your data traffic even if a password is compromised and users can easily choose passwords that are easy to remember.

For WPA3 Enterprise –

With WPA3 Enterprise, financial/government institutions can get a good layer of security and ensures the consistent application of security protocols across the network. It also offers an optional mode using 192-bit min strength security protocols.

According to numbers from ABI Research, cumulative Wi-Fi shipments are expected to hit 20 billion devices this year, with 3 billion new Wi-Fi devices to be shipped in 2018.

Wi-Fi Alliance also celebrates World Wi-Fi Day on June 20th where they’ve congratulated more than 800 member companies and entire Wi-Fi industry on its success.

Happy World Wi-Fi Day! Today, let's celebrate the broad impact of Wi-Fi around the world https://t.co/LoHJaBcO8E #WorldWiFiDay

— Wi-Fi Alliance (@WiFiAlliance) June 20, 2018

Wi-Fi Alliance also added more enhancements in WPA2 protocol which maintains strong security protections as the wireless landscape evolves. WPA2 continues to be mandatory for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices where WPA3 will maintain interoperability with WPA2 devices through a transitional mode of operation, and Wi-Fi users can remain confident they are protected when connected to secured Wi-Fi CERTIFIED networks.

WPA( or WPA v1 as it is referred to sometimes) primarily uses the TKIP encryption algorithm. TKIP was aimed at improving WEP, without requiring completely new hardware to run it. WPA2 in contrast mandatory uses the AES-CCMP algorithm for encryption, which is much more powerful and robust than TKIP. And now WPA3 comes into action with more robust security architecture.

In context to WPA/WPA2 PSK is vulnerable to a dictionary attack. The inputs required for this attack are the four-way WPA handshake between client and access point, and a wordlist that contains common passphrases. Then, using tools such as Aircrack-ng, we can try to crack the WPA/
WPA2 PSK passphrase.

The best way to protect yourself against the many threats is strong endpoint protection such as frequent updates and upgrades, system configuration, monitoring regularly for vulnerabilities, and connecting to a strong VPN service. If you have full responsibilities over IT in your organization, your staff members should be well educated to understand the dangers behind cyber criminals and know good security measures to take while using the computers and phone systems.

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Main Features of WPA3 –

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