WEP was superseded by WPA because of what problem?

WEP, or Wired Equivalent Privacy, was designed to provide a level of security for wireless networks; however, it has several significant weaknesses. One key issue that led to its replacement by WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is its weak initialization vector (IV). The initialization vector is a crucial component of WEP's encryption scheme.

WEP uses a 24-bit IV, which is relatively short and can lead to the same IV being used multiple times across the same network. When the same IV is used repeatedly, it becomes vulnerable to attacks, as attackers can capture enough packets to analyze and eventually uncover the encryption keys. This weakness can allow attackers to decrypt wireless traffic and gain unauthorized access to the network, which is a substantial security risk.

WPA addressed this problem by implementing a much more robust method of generating initialization vectors, coupled with other security improvements that significantly enhanced the security of wireless communications. This is why the weak initialization vector is a critical factor in WEP's replacement by WPA.