Wi-Fi security is getting a much-needed upgrade after more than a decade since its last.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees the standards for wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, announced Monday the rollout of WPA3 security protocol, an update to the 14-year-old WPA2.
With WPA3 protocols in place, it will be more difficult for hackers to obtain your Wi-Fi password by making repeated guesses.
“With WPA3, attackers are only supposed to be able to make a single guess against that offline data before it becomes useless,” The Verge reported. “They’ll instead have to interact with the live Wi-Fi device every time they want to make a guess.”
Even in the event hackers get your password, certain types of data will be unavailable to them thanks to “forward secrecy,” which is a “feature that prevents older data from being compromised by a later attack,” The Verge said.
But getting the new security features won’t be an overnight, automatic process. It could take years. Users will need to acquire a WPA3-ready router and wireless devices — phones, computers, and tablets.
Eventually, before the Wi-Fi Alliance certifies a wireless device, it will have to be WPA3 compliant, but that’s currently not mandatory.
Reaction to the new Wi-Fi security measures were mixed on social media.