Today the Wi-Fi Alliance made it known that they have approved the first batch of Wi-Fi products that meet with the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED standard for the WPA2 capability. This is great, it looks like Wi-Fi is on its way to becoming a secure way to connect to the Internet without the stress of wondering if someone is sneaking into your network.
The Wi-Fi Alliance announced today the first round of products that are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ for the WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2™) capability. WPA2 builds on its predecessor, WPA™, and is specifically designed to meet the most demanding enterprise security needs. The first WPA2 products are expected to be available from vendors later this month.
WPA2 is based upon the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11i amendment to the 802.11 standard, which was ratified on July 29, 2004. The primary difference between WPA and WPA2 is that WPA2 uses a more advanced encryption technique called AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), allowing for compliance with FIPS140-2 government security requirements.
