Philip Wen’s Virtual Residence

WPA Wireless Network - Safe No More

 

 

 

You’ve done your best in securing your wireless network.  You’ve turned on the WEP encryption scheme on your Linksys router.  You even turned off SSID broadcast and MAC address filtering.  You’ve got the safest wireless network on the block… right?

Well, as of this minute, it is safe no longer.  Just like researchers eventually found a way around the WEP encryption, WPA encryption (TKIP specifically) is now also compromised.  For someone with the knowledge, the will, and 15 spare minutes, the wireless signal that spills out of your office walls is now an open invitation to a potential cracker to come in your digital playground.  Read this article for more information.

TJ Maxx suffered from one of the most severe and  embarrassing data security breaches in recent memory, all simply due to their over-confidence on its WEP encryption.  Don’t make the same mistake.

Time for all of us to implement WPA2.  A few hours of work is worth the countless worry-free nights — at least until the researchers find a way around WPA2 encryption!  ;-p

 

For those of you who have not heard of the recently popularized past time, here is Wikipedia’s entry on Wardriving.