Last year, when security researchers tore apart WPA2’s security with KRACK exploit, questions were raised regarding its ability to protect billions of WiFi-compatible devices across the world.
As a result, in January 2018, the WiFi Alliance announced a major upgrade to the WiFi security protocol called WPA3 (WiFi Protected Access III). Now, after almost six months WPA3 is official.
WPA3 is designed to make authentication more robust and increase cryptographic strength of wireless networks. For everyday users, the standard brings individualized data encryption and makes password-based sign-ins more resilient by implementing Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) – a key establishment protocol that makes it harder to guess passwords.
For Enterprise users, it offers an encryption “equivalent to 192-bit cryptographic strength” provided a secure medium for transfer of sensitive data.
The WiFi Alliance has also introduced Easy Connect that reduces the complexity of adding WiFi devices with limited or no display to a network, like IoT devices. For such devices, smartphones and QR codes can be used.
WPA3 has replaced its predecessor after 14 years of existence. Eventually, the new security protocol would take over WPA2’s empire, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Mostly, it depends on the manufacturers that how quickly they release WPA3 routers and other devices. But WPA2 is going to stay. It goes without saying that WPA3-compatible devices will be interoperable with WPA2 devices.
