What is Wifi Security:
Wifi means wireless fidelity. In this world, the most of us are using Wi-Fi network for surfing internet with our laptop, tablet even our smart phone with different operating system. To connect the desired network with other device you must select the network name followed by the security password. If the available Wi-Fi network is opened then you do not need to type any password so that you/anybody can connect their device. But, In many cases the Wi-Fi network will be secured with password, even my wifi is protected with the password. There are different protocols used for securing Wi-Fi network with protocols. We are having 6 Types of wifi security.
6 Types of Wifi Security:
- Wired equivalent privacy (WEP)
- Wi-Fi protected Access (WAP)
- Wi-Fi protected Access-2 (WAP2)
- Wi-Fi protected Access-3(WAP3)
- Wi-Fi protected setup(WPS)
- Access control
Wired Equivalent privacy (WEP)
Wired Equivalent Privacy is also called as WEP. WEP was developed in 1999, earliest and wireless security protocol that was used in network and also in name employees its supplies the same security to wireless network as read as wired network. This trend is not in use. It was found 40 bit encryption key that be used in non-secured and therefore it is easily hackable. That’s why today WEP no longer used. Even modern Wi-Fi user not even has option any more. So the better security is needed in wireless network. WEB had following disadvantages,
- It can be hacked easily, the security level is poor.
- Hard to install and configuration
- Not able to upgrade in the same system as like WAP2.
Wi-Fi protected Access (WAP)
The WPA is developed for solve the problem of WEP. WPA is far better than WEP and this is because it is stronger encryption method called Temporary key integrity protocol (TKIP). TKIP dynamically changes its key as its used. This ensures data integrity but even though WPA is more secure than WEP. Even today WPA is out dated because TKIP has some warrantable abilities. It brings WPA2.
Wi-Fi protected Access-2 (WAP2)
WPA2 is provides even stronger security than WPA and it has a stronger encryption method. Where WPA uses TKIP encryption which is having some limitations WPA2 uses the advanced encryption standard (AES). AES uses sematic algorithm which has strong enough to resists abort for us to attack. AES is so secured that US federal government has adopted and using encrypted sensitive government data.
The Advantages of AES are as follows −
- Symmetric key symmetric block cipher
- 128-bit data, 128/192/256-bit keys
- Stronger and faster than Triple-DES
- Provide full specification and design details
- Software implementable in C and Java
When we login to Wi-Fi router configuration page and if we go to Wi-Fi security section we can find different security protocols that we can choose from to protect Wi-Fi network.
Here we can see WEP, WPA, WPA2 protocol. This router is few years old and still has WEP as an option. New routers has not even have WEP as an option because WEP is weak and out dated and no longer used.
It is noticed that both of the routers that has the option WAP2 and WAP. This is the next security option. This option enables the WPA and WAP2 at same time it will use both TKIP and AES security. The reason for this mixed option is for compatibility purpose, because some older devices will connect to WPA2 and so this older devices the same time modern devices will connect WPA2. Some people may ask why not choose mixed option at a time. Since it is more compatibility to all devices but the problem is in addition to AES and also using TKIP. Since TKIP is not strong as AES.
All devices are modern then the best option is to choose WPA2 which uses AES.
Wi-Fi protected Access-3(WAP3)
The next generation of wireless security system is WPA3. WPA3 is introduced in 2018. According to Wi-Fi website www.wi-fi.org WPA3 provides cutting edge security protocols to the market and it adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security and enable more robust authentication and also receive increased protection from password guessing attempts.
Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS)
WPS is designed to make it easy as possible for devices to join a secure wireless network.
There are couple of different methods that are used in WPS the most common method is push button method just press the button then you will be connected.
For example most us routers today will have a physical WPS button that you can press and lot of Wi-Fi printers have software or physical WPS button by pressing WPS button in printer it will connect the printer. The printer was connected Wi-Fi router in a few seconds.
Also you can use another method if your client has WPS pin number if you enter pin number printer will connect in few second.
The WPS is the easy way to join wireless network and lot of manufacture built wireless network products with WPS this makes simple as possible for their customer to join wireless network.
Access control
In access control method some routers called MAC filter. And this option you can either allow or block devices to join in your network. Every new adapter has a MAC address, MAC address has a hexa decimal number that uniquely identify each devices on a network and access control allow or block access by using IP address from your router, but won’t be able to communicate with any other device and not able to connect to internet. Access control is a extra larger of the security that addition to your Wi-Fi password and access control also wired devices.
