With wired equivalent privacy (WEP) largely discredited as a wireless security protocol, Enterasys Networks yesterday announced it would support the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) specification in its RoamAbout indoor and outdoor wireless LAN products.
The move comes a day after the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry-wide body, officially announced support for WPA in place of the flawed WEP protocol. WEP, the previous standard, is known to have many flaws and is relatively easy to bypass using common intrusion tools.
WPA, in contrast, includes a much higher level of encryption and features dynamic key exchanges, a much needed improvement in an industry that struggles to overcome the security hurdles facing the roll-out of wireless technologies.
The WPA specification is based on a portion of the features to be included in the upcoming 802.11i security amendment. However, 802.11i is not expected to be ratified until late next year.
"WPA significantly increases encryption and authentication for current and future wireless networks, and will be the next step in the evolution of standards-based security solutions for 802.11 networks," says John Roese, CTO at Enterasys Networks.
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