Why is 128-bit SSL (Internet Explorer) more secure than 128-bit WEP (wireless)?

[JEDI]

They are both 128-bit encryption. So why is SSL more secure than WEP?

 

[ScottMac]

Because when "they" came up with 128 bit WEP, they used some fixed values to initialize the encryption, which makes the encryption somewhat predictable.

Some manufacturers now have better schemes; random initialization, dynamic keys , some have keys that update frequently, lots of stuff.

That's the short of it.


FWIW

Scott

 

[Fallen Kell]

I was just about to say the same thing. Basically, a sucessful attack can be made on WEP encryption very easily by simply collecting the "encrypted" packets that are broadcast over the network and then running analysis on all the packets (as they are recieved in sequence). Last I checked something like 100,000 packets were needed (which doesn't take that long to collect, especially if that person is activly using the network), and then the computation takes a matter of 1-5 minutes to perform on current laptops.