WEP
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Wired Equivalent Privacy |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy, a networking abbreviation.
The original Wi-Fi encryption scheme in the 1997 IEEE 802.11 standard, based on the RC4 cipher with 40-bit or 104-bit keys. Design flaws allow a WEP key to be recovered within minutes from captured traffic, so it offers essentially no protection today.
Example: The audit flagged a warehouse printer that was still broadcasting a WEP network.
Usage notes
Serious weaknesses were published in 2001 by Fluhrer, Mantin and Shamir, the Wi-Fi Alliance replaced WEP with WPA in 2003, and the IEEE deprecated it in 2004. The name promised privacy equivalent to a cable, which it never delivered. Many modern devices refuse to connect to WEP networks at all.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- VLAN – Virtual LAN
- VNC – Virtual Network Computing
- VPN – Virtual private network
- VXLAN – Virtual Extensible LAN
- WAN – Wide area network
- WAP – Wireless access point
- WLAN – Wireless local area network
- WPA – Wi-Fi Protected Access
- WPA2 – Wi-Fi Protected Access 2
- WPA3 – Wi-Fi Protected Access 3
- WPS – Wi-Fi Protected Setup
- XMPP – Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol