WPA Wi-Fi encryption cracked!

If you are using a wireless network, especially in office environment, you should be well awared that running Wi-Fi without any encryption is a big no-no, and that the depreciated Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption is extremely weak and can be cracked within seconds. As such, you probably are using Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption to protect your Wi-Fi from unauthorized access and/or information stealing/leaking.

But now, bad news is that 2 German researchers - Martin Beck and Erik Tews - have found a way to crack the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP, which was supposed to fix all problems with WEP) of WPA encryption within minutes, and they are going to share their cracking tools to the public during the PacSec Conference in Tokyo this 12-13 November 2008. In fact, some of the code used in the attack was already quietly added into the Aircrack-ng Wi-Fi encryption hacking tool about two weeks ago.

In short: WPA is no longer secured!

So what can you do to safeguard the security of your wireless network? Ensure that your wireless access points and equipments support WPA2, and switch over to it. WPA2 implements the mandatory elements of IEEE 802.11i standard, and is still uncracked by now, if it doesn't make use of the TKIP, and is instead set to use Advanced Encryption System (AES) with its Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP).

Click here to read more about this new crack on WPA Wi-Fi encryption.