WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

Wired Equivalent Privacy was the original Wi-Fi security protocol introduced in 1997 and based on the RC4 cipher. Cryptanalytic attacks published from 2001 onwards rendered it broken; the entire keystream can be recovered in minutes. WEP is removed from modern Wi-Fi standards and must never be used; equipment that only supports WEP should be replaced.

Categories: Threats and AttacksProtocols and StandardsInternet and Routing

WEP in context

Telecom threats range from opportunistic SMS phishing and SIM swap to nation-state grade location tracking. The common thread is that most attacks exploit the inherited trust model of legacy signaling protocols.

Telecom security is written into standards from 3GPP, GSMA, ETSI, IETF and ITU-T. Understanding which body owns which specification, and how they interlock, is essential for both design and audit work.

To place WEP in the wider telecom-security picture, review WPA2, BGP, PoE, CSIRT, 3GPP and ETSI: each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

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