Wi-Fi Protected Access

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) (Wireless Protected Access), Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) are the three security certification programs developed after 2000 by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks. The Alliance defined these in response to serious weaknesses researchers had found in the previous system, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).^[1]

WPA (sometimes referred to as the TKIP standard) became available in 2003. The Wi-Fi Alliance intended it as an intermediate measure in anticipation of the availability of the more secure and complex WPA2, which became available in 2004 and is a common shorthand for the full IEEE 802.11i (or IEEE 802.11i-2004) standard.

In January 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the release of WPA3, which has several security improvements over WPA2.^[2]

As of 2023, most computers that connect to a wireless network have support for using WPA, WPA2, or WPA3. All versions thereof, at least as implemented through May, 2021, are vulnerable to compromise.^[3]