Nonetheless, many companies are still using WEP.Įarlier this month, the PCI Council (the custodian of the payment card industry’s data security standards) released its “ Information Supplement: PCI DSS Wireless Guideline” which reiterates the PCI Data Security Standards’ requirement that wireless networks associated with payment card environments must implement WPA on legacy wireless implementations by June 30, 2010. For that reason, as discussed further below, industry standards as well as regulators require that WPA (instead of WEP) be used to secure wireless networks that are used to transmit sensitive information such as credit card numbers. In fact, researchers have reported consistently for several years that it is relatively easy to break into a WEP-secured wireless network. WEP and WPA are two alternative ways to secure a wireless network from unauthorized interception, and WPA is more secure than WEP. In the context of wireless network security, we hear a lot about WEP vs WPA, but these technologies are not widely understood, especially among attorneys.

Network security wep vs wpa