On Thursday, a new wireless standard was ratified. This new standard is called 802.11i, and is far more secure than its predecessors. This new standard is planned to be brought out officially in September, according to eWeek. Already Robin Ritch, a director of security industry marketing for Intel stated that "All of the company's Centrino chip sets, including the older models, are compliant with the specification." With better security that's based off of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) this new standard looks promising.
As expected, the 802.11i standard was finalized Thursday, paving the way for improved security within wireless networks. Proponents of the standard said that the 802.11i specification could have an immediate impact on VPN infrastructure, which could be relegated to a lesser role inside a corporate network. The standard was ratified on Thursday at an IEEE standards committee meeting in Piscataway, N.J. The 802.11i standard adds a needed layer of security to Wi-Fi, which has become widespread both in the consumer and corporate spaces. Early attempts at security, such as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), provided some basic security but were derided as too easy to crack.
"Intel is ecstatic," said Robin Ritch, director of security industry marketing for Intel Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., who said all of the company's Centrino chip sets, including the older models, are compliant with the specification. As expected, vendors are already rolling out firmware enabling 802.11-compliant security protocols, although the software won't officially be pushed to customers until September, when the Wi-Fi Alliance is expected to begin interoperability testing to make sure devices can talk to one another, Ritch said. Devices compliant with the 802.11i spec will likely be certified as compliant with WPA2, the second generation of Wi-Fi Protected Access, she said.
News source: eWeek
