Wired Equivalent Privacy
lastmod 2020-06-27created 2020-06-274 edits
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an algorithm used to secure wireless LAN operation, part of the IEEE 802.11 specification that defines wireless LAN standards. Introduced in the 802.11 standard established in 1997, WEP was designed to provide data security comparable to that of a traditional wired network. WEP, which uses a 10- or 26-digit hexadecimal key, was once very widely used and was the first option shown in routers' security settings.
In early 2001, cryptographers found several critical vulnerabilities that allow anyone to crack a WEP connection in a few tens of minutes with freely available software. Within a few months of the vulnerabilities being found, the IEEE formed the 802.11i team to address them. In 2003, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that WEP would be superseded by WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).
| WARNING |
| In the 802.11i standard released in 2004, the IEEE declared both WEP-40 and WEP-104 deprecated. |
See also
- Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
- Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
- Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
- CCMP