Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) versus Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

Abstract

Wireless technology has been gaining rapid popularity for some years. Adaptation of a standard depends on the ease of use and level of security it provides. In this case, contrast between wireless usage and security standards show that the security is not keeping up with the growth paste of end user’s usage. Current wireless technologies in use allow hackers to monitor and even change the integrity of transmitted data. Lack of rigid security standards has caused companies to invest millions on securing their wireless networks. There are three major types of security standards in wireless. In our previous paper which was presented in ICFCC2009 Conference in Kuala Lumpur and published by IEEE Computer Society [1], we explained the structure of WEP as a first wireless security standard and discussed all its versions, problems and improvements. Now, we try to explain all of WPA versions and problems with the best solutions and finally make a comparison between WEP and WPA. Then we are in the next phase which is to explain the structure of last standard (WPA2) and we hope that we will publish a complete comparison among wireless security techniques in the near future and recommend a new proposal as a new protocol.