CeBIT showed that wireless local area networks are now
providing better security and greater bandwidth. But users should
make sure that any products they buy incorporate the latest
improvements.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry body whose members include the
major suppliers of PC WLan cards and data access points, announced
it has finalised a new security standard that will make it much
harder for intruders to crack WLans.
Up until now, standard WLan kit has been bundled with the WEP
security protocol, which has been heavily criticised for its lack
of robustness against external security threats.
The Wi-Fi Alliance used CeBIT to launch its new WPA (Wi-Fi
Protected Access) security solution, which is a much harder
protocol to crack, and which must be included in all Wi-Fi
Alliance-approved products from the third quarter of this year.
WPA itself, however, is an interim protocol that will be improved
further when the even stronger TGi standard is ratified by alliance
members. This protocol can easily be upgraded to TGi when its
ready, according to Andrea Vocale, business development manager for
wireless networking at Cisco, which is a leading Wi-Fi Alliance
member.
The dilemma faced by companies when it comes to Wi-Fi security was
illustrated by some new wireless access points launched by 3Com at
CeBIT. The 8200, 8500 and 8700 access points do not include WPA.
Instead, like most products currently on the market, they feature
the flawed 40bit WEP.
On the bandwidth front, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that it
expects the important new access standard, 802.11g, to be ratified
by the IEEE in either June or August this year.
The 802.11g standard is important because it offers users access
speeds of up to 54mbps using unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz
band. Similar speeds are possible using the existing 802.11a
standard, but take-up has been low because the technology uses
limited licensed spectrum in the 5GHz band.
802.11g is also a big step up from the established 802.11b
technology, which only offers access at up to 11mbps, using 2.4GHz.