Which protocol is considered interim before more secure protocols were adopted?

WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access, was developed as an interim solution to address the vulnerabilities present in WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), which was the original security protocol for wireless networks. WEP was found to have significant security flaws that could be exploited, leading to unauthorized access to wireless networks. As a response to these shortcomings, WPA was introduced to enhance security and offer a better level of protection for wireless communications.

WPA incorporated improvements such as the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), which provided dynamic key management and a more robust encryption method than WEP's static keys. This interim measure was critical in bridging the gap while more secure protocols, such as WPA2, which utilizes AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), were being developed and standardized.

WPA paved the way for the more advanced security offerings that followed, making it an important step in the evolution of wireless security, despite being ultimately superseded by WPA2 and newer protocols like WPA3.