THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY March 25, 2003 Wi-Fi Protected Access
______________ SPONSORED BY: Global Knowledge BECOME THE EXPERT! Global Knowledge is a worldwide leader in IT education and enterprise training solutions, offering more than 700 courses. For a limited time purchase any 3 courses at one time, and get $1,000 off the total! Choices include Network Security, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, and Linux Administration. Click here to review our entire course catalog http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,11697,00.htm?globalknowledge ________________ TODAY'S WORD: Wi-Fi Protected Access See our complete definition with hyperlinks at http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci887323,00.html Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is the latest security standard for users of computers equipped with Wi-Fi wireless connection. It is an improvement on and is expected to replace the original Wi-Fi security standard, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA provides more sophisticated data encryption than WEP and also provides user authentication (WEP's user authentication is considered insufficient). WEP is still considered useful for the casual home user, but insufficient for the corporate environment where the large flow of messages can enable eavesdroppers to discover encryption keys more quickly. WPA's encryption method is the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). TKIP adddresses the weaknesses of WEP by including a per-packet mixing function, a message integrity check, an extended initialization vector, and a re-keying mechanism. WPA provides "strong" user authentication based on 802.1X and the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). WPA depends on a central authentication server such as RADIUS to authenticate each user. Wi-Fi Protected Access is a subset of and will be compatible with IEEE 802.11i, a security standard under development. Software updates that will allow both server and client computers to implement WPA are expected to become widely available during 2003. Access points (see hot spots) can operate in mixed WEP/WPA mode to support both WEP and WPA clients. However, mixed mode effectively provides only WEP-level security for all users. Home users of access points that use only WPA can operate in a special home-mode in which the user need only enter a password to be connected to the access point. The password will trigger authentication and TKIP encryption. RELATED TERMS: Wi-Fi http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci838865,00.html Wired Equivalent Privacy http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci549087,00.html RADIUS http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci214249,00.html ______________ SELECTED LINKS: The Wi-Fi Alliance provides an overview of Wi-Fi Protected Access. http://www.wi-fi.org/opensection/pdf/wi-fi_protected_access_overview.pdf SearchNetworking.com offers links to more about "Hot Spots and Mobile Access." http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid7_tax286431,00.html ______________ TODAY'S TECH NEWS: INTERSAN EXTENDS PATHLINE AUTOMATION FEATURES InterSAN is prepping for an upgrade of its Pathline management and automation product. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid5_gci887497,00.html CIO, CPO RELATIONSHIP BECOMING KEY IN IT SHOPS With government initiatives such as HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) turning up the pressure to protect customer data, organizations have recognized the need to rank privacy ahead of almost all other issues. http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci887780,00.html FREIGHT COMPANY HAULS IN 37,000 WINDOWS PATCHES Administrators at freight giant CNF have installed an eye-popping 37,000 Windows desktop patches since August. An IT manager with CNF explained why they needed so many, and he offered some patch management advice for those who need to patch things up in their own organizations. http://searchwindowsmanageability.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid33_gci887247,00.html >> Catch up on all the latest IT news at http://searchtechtarget.techtarget.com/ ______________________ KNOW-IT-ALL QUESTION | Do you speak geek? This operating system originated at Bell Labs in 1969 as an interactive time-sharing system. a. BASIC b. DOS c. Linux d. Unix >> See correct answer http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci213253,00.html ______________________ QUIZ #36 | Linux Basics Take our latest quiz and see how much you know about Linux. Make Linus Torvalds proud! >> Click to take the quiz http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid39_gci882525,00.html ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] non-geographic number http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci885964,00.html [2] Internet Key Exchange http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci884946,00.html [3] Wi-Fi Protected Access http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci887323,00.html [4] Learning Guide: Introduction to XML http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci887243,00.html [5] Learning Guide: Security Policy Primer http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci887248,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved. 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