CES 2018, the tech show, brought so many interesting devices and future tech concepts for us. Thinking about our future with these amazing technologies seems really awesome.
WiFi Alliance, the consortium of companies that sets the WiFi standards for consumer WiFi came up with a new version of WPA (WiFi Protected Access) protocol.
Just to remind you, the current standard is WPA2 which we are using from 2003. Everything was fine until the day when KRACK attack happened. KRACK (Key Re-Installation Attack) was a massive vulnerability which affected almost every WiFi enabled device last year. Basically, this vulnerability questioned the security of WPA2. Under the attack, the bad people can eavesdrop on your data whenever you are connected to WiFi.
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WPA3 will be used to authenticate devices connected to the network. There are many places in the world where WiFi access points are used without any password. These are basically public hotspots. WPA3 will encrypt the traffic streams between the devices connected to the network individually. This will improve the security and privacy while using public networks.
The new standard also aims to simplify the process involved in choosing and setting up strong passwords on devices that do not have a display. This is important and has become a concern in the current era where the appliances and sensors are also connected to the internet.
To support the latest standard, it’s very important for the WiFi devices to be updated and re-certified by the WiFi Alliance Alternatively, you can also replace your devices to support WPA3.
Wi-Fi Alliance has revealed that the rollout of the latest WPA3 protocol will happen sometime this year but they haven’t revealed the specific timeframe yet. The same will come to light only when the hardware and software vendors release their plans.
