Here's quick way check the encryption of your WiFi connections:
1 - Open your terminal in Linux and run the following command:
Find the ID for your wireless adapter, run ifconfig, scroll down until you see WLAN followed by number. Most of the time it would be wlan0
2 - After you confirm your wireless adapter run the following:sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
An explanation of what you'll see is the screenshot above.Encryption key: off. This means your connection on the wireless network is not encrypted and data is being transferred in plaintext. ESSID is just the wireless network name you are connected to.3 - Here's example of what it must look like for you to know you've got a secure connection:
- Encryption key: on << this is probably the first thing you must look for :)
- WPA2 is the standard that replaced WEP. This is the recommended security protocol for wireless communication.
- TKIP is the encryption method used in WPA (WiFi protected areas), which replaced WEP in WLAN products.
- CCMP is the standard encryption protocol for use with the WPA2 standard
- PSK is a shared secret between two parties using secure channel
Hope this works for you. It helps me know how careful I must be when using open networks.
