WPA3 security has been officially launched

By admin On Jun 26, 2018

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It took 14 years, but finally we are officially a step further with the security of WiFi. The Wi-Fi Alliance, the body that oversees the standardization of wireless internet, has launched the security standard WPA3 and that means that from now on routers and modems will come on the market that support the standard, and that manufacturers of gadgets that can include standard in their software and operating systems.
It will take a while before everyone will do that, but expect that almost all devices that will release from next year will have WPA3 certification. It will take a year or two for WPA3 to be sold as a WiFi device, but until that time all devices that support WPA3 will still work together with the current networks and devices.

What exactly does WPA3 do?

With WPA3 a number of things will fundamentally change to wireless internet. A difference is made between WPA3 Personal and Enterprise, just as it is with the current standard. We briefly outline the most important innovations for you:
Individual data encryption means that all data exchanged between the WiFi point and your devices is encrypted. That is the same kind of protection as you see in many browsers and it means intercepting the data between sending from your device and receiving a WiFi point and vice versa. As a malicious party you have intercepted data, but without the key you can not see what you have intercepted. Better still, that key is always changed, so even if a malicious person can find your password, they can not still view your older data.
SAE stands for Simultaneous Authentication of Equals. That term is not that important, but it replaces the WPA2-PSK passwords. PSK stands for pre-shared key and that means that once you have made up a password and that your WiFi device always says “ie that password says” come in. ” That will change with SAE, because before the password is accepted there must be an interaction with the network to approve it, simply put.
This is not important to us as users, because we can still create and connect a password, but for hackers who have entire lists of passwords and try to get in by a brute force attack (just keep trying all passwords until you indoors) it becomes a lot harder, slower and therefore in many cases no longer worth the trouble.
192-bit encryption is a feature that is especially important for companies and governments and can only be used with WPA3-Enterprise. For us ordinary users not important, but useful if you really have to move very sensitive data via Wi-Fi. That is not really done now, so it should ensure that no USB sticks with important data are lost.

Easy Connect

In addition to the WPA3 standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance has also announced Wi-Fi Easy Connect. That is a specific protocol for the Internet of Things and that is meant to replace the current (unsafe) WPS button.
Especially devices that do not have a screen themselves are problematic at the moment, but Easy Connect changes the connection by using your smartphone as an intermediate station. Smart devices get a QR code that you can scan with your smartphone and you can ‘introduce’ a new device to your WiFi network. The smart device will then receive the access codes from your phone.
All good additions for our wireless networks. It was also time: there is now so much data going through the air that it was really time for an upgrade of the wireless security. So if you’re looking for a new WiFi device in the coming year, check if there is no model arriving or already with WPA3 support. Your data will thank you.