Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA is a security standard for computers and wireless network. With it, you are assured that people will not be able to spy on the data you send and receive using a wireless connection.

The improved security standard first appeared in 2003 in responses to cracks in its predecessor, the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) security standard. Hackers had discovered a way to guess the encryption passwords used by WEP and developed user friendly tool to do so.

These tools eventually made their way online and become easily downloadable by anyone who wanted to do so.

WPA is now available in all wireless equipment sold today from wireless routers and operating systems like Windows XP.

[tags]Wi-Fi, WPA[/tags]