There are many ways to secure wireless networks. Unfortunately, not all of them are very secure. In this series of articles, Larry Loeb dissects the encryption schemes and other security features used with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) networks, and provides tips on implementing them as part of your organization's wireless network defenses.

Wired Equivalent Privacy was the original encryption scheme for Wi-Fi networks. WEP's goal was to provide confidentiality, protect access to the network infrastructure by rejecting all non-WEP packets, and providing data integrity. There's just one problem with Wired Equivalent Privacy: it isn't.

But since so many WEP-based 802.11 networks have already been deployed, WEP's security gaps remain a significant security issue for many organizations. In the first article in our series on wireless security, Larry Loeb looks at how WEP works, and how it can be cracked.

The weaknesses of WEP are why it has been succeeded by WiFi-Protected Access (WPA). In the second article of his series, Loeb examines the details of how WPA works, and how to implement WPA as part of your wireless security strategy.