Wireless LAN Vendor Group Looks to Improve Security

New specs target WEP shortcomings

By Bob Brewin

November 4, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - A group of wireless LAN technology vendors last week detailed a set of interim specifications designed to beef up security through the use of harder-to-break encryption keys and an industrywide user authentication plan.
The specifications, called Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), were announced by the Mountain View, Calif.-based Wi-Fi Alliance trade group. The move is the culmination of an enhanced wireless security initiative that was started earlier this year by a group of vendors, including Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. .
Dennis Eaton, the Wi-Fi Alliance's chairman, said he expects vendors to start rolling out products featuring key components of WPA in February. Among the companies that announced plans to offer WPA-compliant products were Cisco, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Proxim Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of wireless LAN hardware devices.
The specifications include a built-in mechanism to authenticate the identity of wireless LAN users based on the Extensible Authentication Protocol.
WPA also replaces the static encryption keys incorporated into the existing Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol with harder-to-crack dynamic keys based on the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), the alliance said. TKIP is part of a draft 802.11i standard that will supersede WPA but isn't expected to be approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.'s standards body until 2004.
John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said the WPA announcement marks the industrywide acceptance of the Safe Secure Networks project launched by Microsoft, Cisco and other vendors. That effort first came to light last month.
Pescatore said corporate IT departments with hundreds or thousands of wireless LAN users could face a daunting task if they have to upgrade the client software on mobile computers to add WPA-compliant capabilities. But upgrading wireless LAN access points should be a relatively easy task that can be managed centrally, he said.

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