What was WiFi Protected Access (WPA) created in response to?

WiFi Protected Access (WPA) was developed specifically to address the significant vulnerabilities identified in Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WEP was the original security protocol for wireless networks, but numerous weaknesses were discovered, particularly in the areas of encryption and authentication, which made it susceptible to various types of attacks.

The flaws in WEP included a weak initialization vector (IV) that could be easily predicted, as well as the use of static keys that did not change, allowing attackers to capture enough packets to eventually decrypt the key. WPA was introduced as a more robust security mechanism to overcome these shortcomings, incorporating stronger encryption techniques such as the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and later enhancements with WPA2, which utilized Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

Addressing vulnerabilities specifically related to WEP made WPA a vital improvement for securing wireless communications, reinforcing the importance of data protection in the rapidly expanding realm of wireless networking.