When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn What Does Wired Equivalent Privacy 2 Mean?
Wired Equivalent Privacy 2 (WEP2) is a security policy for wireless networks under IEEE 802.11. This algorithm was envisioned to counter the data confidentiality issues faced by traditional wired networks in early days of the Internet. It was introduced as a standard authorized part of 802.11 IEEE policies in September 1999.
Techopedia Explains Wired Equivalent Privacy 2
Wireless Equivalent Privacy 2 was an enhancement to WEP, and included in the earliest drafts of 802.11i policies. It was implementable on hardware which was unable to handle WPA or WPA2, and is the major security provision of the IPv6 protocol. While WEP security algorithms used key values up to 64 bits, WEP2 key values could be up to 128 bits. Its purpose was to stop the vulnerability of network against brute force key attacks. WEP2 was a short-lived extension of WEP because it became clear that the WEP algorithm was inefficient on many levels so a number of fixes were done. The successor to WEP2 is WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).
