WPA Assessment: Safeguarding Public Wireless Networks Effectively

With wireless access points proliferating into hotels, airports and convention centers, there is a real need for security enhancements that will make the corporate world more confident in Wi-Fi technology, says Yankee Group wireless/mobile services director Roberta Wiggins. "Enterprises are . . . With wireless access points proliferating into hotels, airports and convention centers, there is a real need for security enhancements that will make the corporate world more confident in Wi-Fi technology, says Yankee Group wireless/mobile services director Roberta Wiggins. "Enterprises are currently hesitant on extending employee access into the public Wi-Fi arena," she told NewsFactor.

At least part of that hesitancy is due to the low expectations engendered by the notoriously flawed WEP (wired equivalent privacy) security standard. Reacting to a barrage of criticism, the Wi-Fi Alliance now is promoting the use of a new technology called "WPA," or Wi-Fi protected access. But does this new security measure have what it takes to foil the network-busting activities of hackers?

Some wireless-security experts are suggesting -- albeit, cautiously -- that it might. "One of the fundamental problems with WEP is that it used static keys that could be identified and compromised by a hacker," Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank D. Hanzlik told NewsFactor. However, WPA "uses a dynamic key structure under which the key is always changing. This makes it very, very difficult to compromise. That was the fundamental problem, and that's what WPA addresses," he said.