| Term | Description |
| WPA | WPA (WiFi Protected Access) is a wireless standard designed to improve upon the security features of WEP. It is designed to work with existing WiFi products (as a software upgrade to existing WEP-capable hardware). The two improvements over WEP are: 1. Improved data encryption through TKIP (temporal key integrity protocol), which hashes/scrambles the keys and adds an iintegrity-check, ensuring the keys haven't been tampered with. 2. User authentication through EAP (extensible authentication protocol). WPA takes two forms; WPA Enterprise Mode and WPA Personal, or PSK (Pre-Shared Key) Mode. WPA PSK is somewhat more vulnerable to attacks: a cracker passively intercepting initial key exchange messages can then possibly crack poorly chosen short passphrases with a robust dictionary attack offline and without access to the network. WPA-Enterprise is an encryption method that protects unauthorized network access by verifying network users through a server. WPA-Personal is an encryption method that protects unauthorized network access by utilizing a set-up password. Note: WPA is an interim standard being replaced with the IEEE's now ratified 802.11i standard, branded WPA2. |