Japanese computer scientists have improved on an older attack method to get passed WPA encryption. Do not be alarmed though, as protecting yourself is easy to do and takes minimal knowledge…Plus, it isn’t likely that you’ll run into such an attack since it requires a tad bit more work than script kiddies may be willing to do.

Computer scientists in Japan say they’ve developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in about one minute.

The attack gives hackers a way to read encrypted traffic sent between computers and certain types of routers that use the WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption system. The attack was developed by Toshihiro Ohigashi of Hiroshima University and Masakatu Morii of Kobe University, who plan to discuss further details at a technical conference set for Sept. 25 in Hiroshima.

Enterprise Wi-Fi networks typically include security software that would detect the type of man-in-the-middle attack described by the Japanese researchers, said Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security. But the development of the first really practical attack against WPA should give people a reason to dump WPA with TKIP, he (Davis-Felner) said. “It’s not as bad as WEP, but it’s also certainly bad.”

Users can change from TKIP to AES encryption using the administrative interface on many WPA routers.

Read the Full Article: Here

Okay…So this isn’t at all as dangerous as it sounds. They recommend that you switch to WPA2 (CCMP instead of TKIP) or change from TKIP to AES encryption. This is in no way comparable to the weakness of WEP, but hopefully it’ll give you the push to just go ahead and change to WPA2 if possible. Loads of router firmwares support it (or will after upgrading). The article sort of pushes readers to think that this is just terrible, but it really isn’t. TKIP is just simply outdated. Also, you must perform a man-in-the-middle type of attack using your computer as a repeater. This entirety of it all is a bit iffy, but it’s better to be safe than sorry so protect yourself.