It seems like our wireless data is no longer safe as a Russian firm used a NVIDIA graphics card to accelerate WPA Wi-Fi “password recovery” by 10,000 times. This announcement was made by David Hobson, managing director of Global Secure System, as he said that Wi-Fi transmissions are not safe enough for companies, and he suggested that companies should use VPNs in order to have their data protected.
“This breakthrough in brute force decryption of WiFi signals by Elcomsoft confirms our observations that firms can no longer rely on standards-based security to protect their data,” said Mr. Hobson. “As a result, we now advise clients using WiFi in their offices to move on up to a VPN encryption system as well.”
He continued by saying that “brute force decryption of the WPA and WPA2 systems using parallel processing has been on the theoretical possibilities horizon for some time - and presumably employed by relevant government agencies in extreme situations - but the use of the latest NVIDIA cards to speed-up decryption on a standard PC is extremely worrying.”
In conclusion, David Hobson said: “The $64,000 question, of course, is what happens when hackers secure a pecuniary advantage by gaining access to company data flowing across a WPA or WPA2-encrypted wireless connection. Will the Information Commissioner take action against the company concerned for an effective breach of the Data Protection Act.”
This is another reason to develop faster wireless connections as I would like to see hackers to break super-fast system like the one designed by Battelle researchers.
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