What does WEP stand for in wireless security?

What does WEP stand for in wireless security?

• A. Wireless Encryption Protocol
• B. Wireless Electronic Privacy
• C. Wired Equivalent Privacy
• D. Wired Encryption Protocol

Answer: (C)

Wired Equivalent Privacy describes the intent to provide privacy comparable to a wired network. The name signals that the goal was to deliver privacy that is as strong as what you’d expect on a physical Ethernet LAN. In practice, WEP uses the RC4 stream cipher with a shared key and a short initialization vector, which leads to well-known weaknesses that made it insecure in real-world use. Because of these flaws, WEP has been deprecated in favor of stronger standards like WPA and WPA2. The other phrasings don’t fit the actual words in the acronym. For example, the term does not use “Wireless” at the start, nor does it use “Electronic Privacy” or “Encryption Protocol” in place of “Wired Equivalent Privacy.”

Wired Equivalent Privacy describes the intent to provide privacy comparable to a wired network. The name signals that the goal was to deliver privacy that is as strong as what you’d expect on a physical Ethernet LAN. In practice, WEP uses the RC4 stream cipher with a shared key and a short initialization vector, which leads to well-known weaknesses that made it insecure in real-world use. Because of these flaws, WEP has been deprecated in favor of stronger standards like WPA and WPA2.

The other phrasings don’t fit the actual words in the acronym. For example, the term does not use “Wireless” at the start, nor does it use “Electronic Privacy” or “Encryption Protocol” in place of “Wired Equivalent Privacy.”