WPA3-Advanced Wi-Fi Network Security

Wi-Fi is about to get one of its biggest ever security updates.WPA3 (Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™) is the newly announced standard in WiFi security, offering more secure private and public networks.WPA3 is designed as the successor to widely used WPA2 and brings a number of core enhancements to improve security protections The Wi-Fi Alliance’s WPA3 standard for networks has been designed to connect more devices and keep them safer.

The Wi-FI security protocol we currently use, WPA2, was finalized and first used in 2004. It was not built to handle the number of connected devices, and that’s where WPA3 comes in.WPA3  blocks authentication after a certain number of failed log-in attempts and thus also provides protection against Brute-Force Attack.WPA3 provides Forward Secrecy. This is a privacy feature that prevents older data from being compromised by a later attack. The protocol is designed in a way that even with the network password, it is impossible for an eavesdropper to snoop on traffic between the access point and a different client device.WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access III) will seek to improve in two major areas: Strenght and simplicity.

Strength of WPA3

The wpa3-personal standard has the ability to deal with ‘dictionary attacks’, brute force attempts to guess passwords using downloaded intercepted data. A new key exchange protocol, known as SAE ( Simultaneous Authentication of Equals ) has been used.SAE is resistant to passive attack, active attack, and dictionary attack.WPA3-SAE defines the protocol, that allows router and client,  to connect securely and communicate, using strong encryption that is much difficult to crack.WPA3 defines a new handshake that “will deliver robust protections even when users choose passwords that fall short of typical complexity recommendations.

Simplicity of WPA3

WPA3 also introduces Easy Connect, a feature that promises to “simplify the process of configuring security for devices that have limited or no display interface”. In simple terms: WPA3 will mean a smartphone or tablet can be used to manage everything connected to a network from one interface.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance WPA3 is set to roll out later this year and is expected to hit mass adoption in late 2019, when it eventually become a requirement for devices to be considered Wi-Fi certified.

Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) is a new feature in WPA3 that replaces the 802.11 “open” authentication that is widely used in hotspots and public networks. This certification will improve security on open connections.