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WPA

5 minutes 5 Questions

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a wireless security protocol that replaced WEP due to its security vulnerabilities. WPA offers enhanced security by introducing TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol), which generates a new key for each packet sent over the network, providing stronger encryption and protection against key cracking attacks. WPA also includes measures for a robust authentication process using RADIUS servers and EAP methods to validate users. Despite its improvements, WPA is not as secure as the later version, WPA2. Some WPA vulnerabilities have been discovered, and Wi-Fi technology advancements encouraged the creation of a more robust security protocol in the WPA2 standard.

Complete Guide: WPA - Wireless Security

The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is of significant importance owing to its function as a security certification program that sets a higher security standard for wireless networks; thus, ensuring confidential information is protected against unauthorized access.

What is WPA?:
Developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, WPA is a security protocol designed to secure wireless (Wi-Fi) networks. It is an advancement over the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) which had several security weaknesses. WPA provides stronger data protection and network access control.

How WPA Works?:
WPA secures a wireless network by requiring a security key and uses data encryption to ensure that unauthorized parties can't interpret the data they intercept. WPA uses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) for data protection and EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) for secure network access control.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on WPA:
To answer exam questions on WPA effectively:
1. Understand its functionality: Having a thorough understanding of how WPA works, its purpose and attributes such as the use of TKIP and EAP will help you answer theoretical questions.
2. Know the difference: Make sure you understand the differences between WPA, WPA2 and WEP as questions often ask to differentiate these protocols. WPA2, for instance, uses AES instead of TKIP for encryption.
3. Studying practical scenarios: For scenario-based or practical questions, consider studying different real-life examples of WPA application.
4. Stay updated: WPA3 is currently available with better features - understand the improvements made as questions may reference these changes.

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CompTIA Network+ - Wireless Security Example Questions

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Question 1

A coffee shop offers free Wi-Fi to its customers. The staff noticed some malicious activity on the network and want to improve its security. Which security protocol should they implement?

Correct Answer: WPA2-Enterprise

The correct answer is WPA2-Enterprise. This security protocol is designed specifically for corporate or enterprise networks where a higher level of security is needed - for example, in a coffee shop offering free Wi-Fi to customers. It uses 802.1X authentication, which requires each user to authenticate with a username and password before gaining access to the network. This significantly reduces the risk of malicious activity on the network On the other hand, WPA2-Personal and WPA3-Personal are mainly used for home networks and although they provide robust security, they lack the advanced features of WPA2-Enterprise such as individual user and session authentication Lastly, WEP is an outdated, insecure protocol, easily crackable and thus, should not be used.

Question 2

An employee's device is having connection issues and is asking for a pre-shared key. When given the key, it fails to connect to the WPA2-Enterprise network. Why is this?

Correct Answer: WPA2-Enterprise uses 802.1X authentication

The best answer to this question is that 'WPA2-Enterprise uses 802.1X authentication'. A WPA2-Enterprise network does not use pre-shared keys, like WPA2-Personal, but rather uses 802.1X authentication which involves individual user credentials and certificates. This means 'WPA2-Enterprise uses pre-shared keys' is incorrect. The statement 'The network requires WPA2-Personal' is not accurate because the question specified that the network is WPA2-Enterprise. Lastly, 'The employee's device is not compatible' does not provide the reason for asking a pre-shared key while connecting to a WPA2-Enterprise network.

Question 3

A small business owner recently changed the Wi-Fi security protocol to WPA3 but some older devices can't connect. What can be done to ensure compatibility while maintaining security?

Correct Answer: Implement WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode

The small business owner should implement WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode. This allows the use of newer security protocol i.e., WPA3 for devices that support it while still retaining compatibility with older devices that only support WPA2. Switching back to WPA2 entirely would be a backward step in terms of security. Using WEP for the older devices is not recommended since it is the least secure protocol out of all the options. Disabling Wi-Fi security is also not advisable as it would expose the small business network to potential security threats.

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