What is WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)?

WPA resolves the issue of weak WEP headers, which are called initialization vectors (IV), and provides a way of insuring the integrity of the messages passed through MIC (called Michael or message integrity check) using TKIP (the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) to enhance data encryption. WPA-PSK is a special mode of WPA for home users without an enterprise authentication server and provides the same strong encryption protection. WPA is not an official IEEE standard, but is based on and is expected to be compatible with the upcoming 802.11i security standard.