WiFi security needs to be toughened up to bring the standard in line with its dramatically expanded remit, according to recommendations from an IEEE study group. The IEEE – the organization which defines the 802.11 standards on which WiFi is based – now favors the use of randomly generated addresses to improve security and privacy. Currently, each WiFi device gets its own unique MAC (media access control) address, which is not encrypted, making it easy for the identifier to be traced to its user, and the user tracked. Juan Carlos Zuniga, principal engineer at InterDigital and chair of the IEEE 802 privacy executive committee study group, explained that the shortcomings date back to WiFi’s original role – as a local…