How your Wi-Fi is set to become more hi-fi
In the world of tech, where change is often the only constant, a crucial platform that pretty much makes all our gadgets and smart home appliances work, has managed to escape the upgrade cycle for 14 years. All that, however, could be a thing of the past.
Wi-Fi devices which have been using the same protocol for over a decade are now are all set to get an upgrade and follow new standards laid out by the Wi-Fi Alliance – a body which oversees development and adoption of Wi-Fi technology. The Alliance on June 25 announced support for WPA3 – a new security protocol which will phase out the existing WPA2 standard that has been in use since September 2004.
Though only an incremental upgrade on the existing standards, the new WPA3 protocol does bring with it some important updates that promise to make Wi-Fi enabled devices faster and safer than ever before.
Push for security
WPA2, which over the years has been exposed to multiple weaknesses, including the KRACK vulnerabilities that were disclosed in October 2017, will make way for WPA3 – this will include improved security capabilities than what WPA2 currently offers.
The new protocol will provide better protection for devices connected with Wi-Fi. As opposed to the current generation WPA2, the WPA3 devices will be harder for hackers to gain entry into using brute force methods. The new protocol will also be more secure after a hacker gains entry to your router as the protocol will limit the data that they can view once they have uncovered the passcode.
As The Verge reports, the other big ticket feature that the new standard brings with it is forward secrecy.
It is essentially a privacy feature that prevents "older data from being compromised by a later attack". Now even if an attacker captures an encrypted Wi-Fi transmission, and gains access to the passcode of the device, they still won’t be able to read the data as the time stamp on it would have expired. Though having hacked the network, they will only be able to see the information currently flowing over the network.
In case of instances where important data is being transmitted over the network, the administrator can thus simply monitor the connections and easily deal with the hacking attempt in real time.
More speed
The WPA3 standard will also support faster transfer of data over the air. The Wi-Fi Alliance explained that the next generation of Wi-Fi devices will support faster internet speeds thanks to the new 802.11ax standard which will be rolled out with new products.
However, it is important to note that the newer standard alone will be of no use if the internet line from your service provider is not up to the mark. 802.11ax can transmit data at speeds up to 10Gbps, which is way more than what current home connections offer.
Despite this, the new standard could turn out to be great news for enterprises looking to transfer data at fast speeds wirelessly.
Built for Internet of Things
Apart from being fast and secure, the new standard has also been built keeping the Internet of Things in mind. Today, we have more than nine billion Wi-Fi powered devices all over the globe. Many of the interconnected smart devices need to be always connected to not just the internet but also other smart devices to function optimally.
With new standards, a strong push for the adoption of such devices is also being made. WPA3 protocol brings along with it a feature called WiFi Easy Connect. The feature will allow smart devices that may not have an easy-to-use interface or a screen easy access to the internet. With the help of QR codes scan, devices will now be able to connect to the internet and interact with your WPA3-enabled router.
When will I get it?
Not anytime soon. Being a new Wi-Fi standard, WPA3 will require not just compatible routers but also gadgets that support it. Being a hardware standard and not a software one, this could take some time.
However, the Wi-Fi Alliance expects WPA3 roll-out to take place gradually over the next year.
For now, it's not mandatory. But over the course of next year, expect the industry to slowly adopt the new protocol. Once it hits mass adoption, which the Alliance expects will be sometime in late 2019, WPA3 will eventually become a requirement for a device to be considered Wi-Fi certified.
However, one factor that could speed up the adoption process is WPA3's backward compatibility with previous standards. So, even if certain sections of the industry are slow to jump on the bandwagon, wireless routers and the underlying infrastructure can be rolled out in the coming months. An example of this is chipmaker Qualcomm, which has already committed to adopting the new standards as early as this summer.