Category Archives: Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi Alliance announces Wi-Fi 6 designation and new wireless naming conventions

The Wi-Fi Alliance is now designating Wi-Fi 6 as the latest generation of Wi-Fi.   This change was made in order to make IEEE 802.11 wireless computer networking standard names easier for consumers to understand.

The new standards are as follows:

  • Wi-Fi 6 = 802.11ax standard support
  • Wi-Fi 5 = 802.11ac standard support
  • Wi-Fi 4 = 802.11n standard support

Wireless network standards prior to these will still use their current names.

Security vulnerability found in Wi-Fi WPA2 protocol

A security weakness named “Krack Attack” was found in the popular WPA2 protocol used for Wi-Fi access on computers, tablets and smartphones.  This would allow a hacker to spy on data sent via Wi-Fi under these conditions:

  • The website currently being used is not secured (no https:// used in web address)
  • The hacker is in range and connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Microsoft stated that it issued a security update on October 10th 2017 to fix this issue and should have been installed as part of standard Windows Updates .

The CERT Vulnerability Notes Database has logged this issue as Vulnerability Note VU#228519.

More information can be found at www.krackattacks.com.