Who at home still has a old Wi-Fi modem generation may soon be forced to buy a new one: Microsoft has indeed announced that soon will stop supporting Wi-Fi networks protected by WEP and TKIP encryption standards.
Starting with an unspecified version, Windows 10 will refuse to connect to such a network because, Microsoft recalls not without reason, WEP and TKIP are old, insecure and widely known encryption standards by hackers all over the world. Microsoft, in practice, will force users who want to connect to a network via a computer running Windows 10's have a modem / router with AES encryption, i.e. compatible with WPA2 and WPA3 standards. The latter is very recent: it was released by the Wi-Fi Alliance at the end of 2018 and, starting from 2019, the first certified compatible devices arrived on the market.
Why Windows ditches WEP and TKIP
Microsoft Windows 10, already from the May Update of May 2019, if it detects a protected network with WEP or TKIP, warns the user: "This network is not secure". And, in fact, it isn't: WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), for example, is a standard that dates back to 1999 and uses 64-bit key encryption. The TKIP is a little later and only slightly more evolved. The recent WPA standards, on the other hand, use 128 or 256 bit keys, that is much longer and therefore much more difficult for the software used by hackers to "guess". The fact that WEP is not secure, among other things, is not a hypothesis but a certainty. Even the FBI in 2005 (ie 15 years ago!) Proved that it is possible to break into a network protected with the WEP standard in a matter of minutes.
Will we all be safer?
The fewer insecure devices there are around and the more security grows even for devices deemed safe. It sounds like a play on words, but it's the truth: any device that can be attacked by a hacker or infected with a virus can become a hotbed of infection for many others. Getting rid of WEP and TKIP connections, therefore, is certainly good news. But it does not mean that, from now on, we will be unassailable. A few months ago, in May, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of the cittàn Ministry of Economic Development officially announced that "numerous vulnerabilities have been identified in the design and implementation of the WPA3 protocol". A few months after its debut, therefore, WPA 3 is also vulnerable. But we are talking about very different vulnerabilities: today even a novice hacker is able to crack a WEP network, while only an experienced cybercriminal can try their hand at trying to violate the WPA 3 standard.
Windows 10, goodbye to Wi-Fi: wireless connections at risk
