Is WEP encryption secure enough?

[Barfo]

I've heard that WEP encryption was easy to break and so I set up my router to use WPA, but the wirless ada´ter I just bought for mmy desktop only supports WEP and I was wondering if using it would be secure enough?

I'm using 128 bit encryption btw

 

[jlazzaro]

if someone knows what their doing, it can be broken easily...

its very unlikely that you bought a new card that only supports WEP...did you buy it used? have you upgraded the drivers / firmware? are you using WZC or the provided software?

 

[TheoPetro]

unless youre in an appartment where ther are a ton of other wireless networks and people actually looking to get into your stuff I think any kind of encryption should be ok. If its some type of secure business stuff that people will be trying to break into then you need to lock it down tight but if its just some home files then any type of encryption will scare off 99% of the people who can see your network. If you are really concerned about it make the name some obscure name and dont brodcast it, setup firewalls (try comodo I love the thing), antivirius (kaspersky is a nice one) and spyware blocking stuff. This allong with a comp monitoring program that logs stuff and you should be one set little paranoid little guy.

 

[RebateMonger]

Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

New WiFi cards that can handle WPA are often $10 or so.

 

[Gerbil333]

WEP is highly insecure. I cracked my own WRT54G's 128bit WEP key in under an hour. But I use it anyway.

 

[Nothinman]

Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

If you're providing any of that information to a website that's not using SSL you're already beyond help.

 

[ForumMaster]

so return it and buy one that supports WPA. much more secure. i wouldn't do anything really sensative on wireless anyway. too easy to setup a packet sniffer which just reads all and any packets it can detect. WEP, even 128bit encryption, can be broken really easily. don't do less then WPA.

 

[NuroMancer]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

If you're providing any of that information to a website that's not using SSL you're already beyond help.

Now here is the truth.......

SSN, bank accounts, credit card # etc, not over SSL.....................................

It should be no problem to get a card that does WPA, and WPA is way more secure the WEP is. For now.

 

[nweaver]

cracking wep is almost as easy as cracking an XP box live on the intenet pre SP1 and having an administrator password of "password"

 

[marulee]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

New WiFi cards that can handle WPA are often $10 or so.

Yeah, use WPA cannot be cracked unless..

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: TheoPetro
unless youre in an appartment where ther are a ton of other wireless networks and people actually looking to get into your stuff I think any kind of encryption should be ok. If its some type of secure business stuff that people will be trying to break into then you need to lock it down tight but if its just some home files then any type of encryption will scare off 99% of the people who can see your network. If you are really concerned about it make the name some obscure name and dont brodcast it, setup firewalls (try comodo I love the thing), antivirius (kaspersky is a nice one) and spyware blocking stuff. This allong with a comp monitoring program that logs stuff and you should be one set little paranoid little guy.

Yep it's just my home network but I'm kind of paranoid about other people connecting to it, I was thinking about leaving WEP and using my router's MAC filtering to keep out unwanted people, but sometimes I have guests connecting to my network and it would be a royal pain to set it up to each one, WEP's hex keys are annoying already so I'm thinking I'll RMA this thing.

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

New WiFi cards that can handle WPA are often $10 or so.

I always use secure pages when I buy stuff or check bank accounts.

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
so return it and buy one that supports WPA. much more secure. i wouldn't do anything really sensative on wireless anyway. too easy to setup a packet sniffer which just reads all and any packets it can detect. WEP, even 128bit encryption, can be broken really easily. don't do less then WPA.

Yeah, I guess it'll be RMA even though it's really hard to return stuff down here (Mexico), wish I could just upgrade the firmware or something :/

 

[Madwand1]

Which PCI wireless NIC is this? It's surprising that you're able to buy something new these days without WPA support -- it's a requirement for "WiFi certification".

In addition, sometimes NIC drivers show up at different levels -- the vendor, OS supplied ones and ones from the underlying chipset provider. Perhaps you have an alternative source that will do WPA?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: marulee

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Don't forget that, once your WEP key is cracked, any listener can read ALL the traffic sent across your wireless network (unless the traffic is being encrypted by some other means, such as SSL). That means that User Names, Passwords, and (possibly) SSN, bank accounts, and credit card numbers can be read (again, assuming that they aren't being encrypted by some other means).

New WiFi cards that can handle WPA are often $10 or so.

Yeah, use WPA cannot be cracked unless..

How about AES encryption? My Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 wireless router appears to support only these with the stock firmware (I'm quoting the firmware):

WEP: An encryption scheme that can be used with virtually all wireless LAN clients.
TKIP: An encryption scheme offering enhanced security over WEP, but with less client support.
AES: The fastest, most secure wireless encryption available.

I think I turned on AES security when I installed the router a few days ago. Do you have to have XP running on your machines to engage WPA security? Only my laptop has XP (Pro). My desktops are Windows 2000 SP4.