With WPA3, Wi-Fi Security is About To Get a Lot Tougher (zdnet.com)

One of the biggest potential security vulnerabilities -- public Wi-Fi -- may soon get its fix. From a report: The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry body made up of device makers including Apple, Microsoft, and Qualcomm, announced Monday its next-generation wireless network security standard, WPA3. The standard will replace WPA2, a near-two decades-old security protocol that's built in to protect almost every wireless device today -- including phones, laptops, and the Internet of Things.

One of the key improvements in WPA3 will aim to solve a common security problem: open Wi-Fi networks. Seen in coffee shops and airports, open Wi-Fi networks are convenient but unencrypted, allowing anyone on the same network to intercept data sent from other devices. WPA3 employs individualized data encryption, which scramble the connection between each device on the network and the router, ensuring secrets are kept safe and sites that you visit haven't been manipulated. Further reading: WPA3 WiFi Standard Announced After Researchers KRACKed WPA2 Three Months Ago

Comments

Freudian slip, anyone?

[davecb]

I'd hope security would get better, but maybe it does just get tougher (;-))

--dave
[English, ambiguity is your middle name]

Better, but not best.

[MachineShedFred]

Yes, this will prevent open-air sniffing of your packets.

VPN or HTTPS is still better, because after those packets arrive at the access point, they are unencrypted over whatever wire the AP is plugged into. WPA only covers the wireless link; HTTPS or VPN (or both!) encrypt much farther through the network, if not the whole way.

The first thing I do on an open WiFi network is connect to a VPN.

Re:Better, but not best.

[Hal_Porter]

It doesn't hurt to have multiple redundant levels of security. I.e. HTTPS over VPN over WPA3.