What is the difference between WPA2-PSK (AES) and WPA3-Personal security?

• A. WPA2-PSK uses AES with a pre-shared key; WPA3-Personal uses SAE authentication and stronger encryption.
• B. Both use the same encryption; only differ in key length.
• C. WPA2-PSK uses RSA; WPA3-Personal uses ECC.
• D. WPA3-Personal uses WPA2 encryption with a stronger hash but no SAE.

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is how devices prove they know the network password and establish a secure connection. WPA2-PSK uses a static pre-shared key that both the access point and client know. They run a 4‑way handshake to create session keys, but if someone captures enough of the handshake data, they can try to guess the password offline and potentially break in, especially with a weak password.

WPA3-Personal changes this by using Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) for the authentication process. SAE is a password-based, authenticated key exchange that verifies knowledge of the password without actually sending it. This makes offline dictionary attacks much harder or effectively impossible, and it provides forward secrecy so past session keys aren’t exposed if the password is discovered later. Encryption with AES remains the underlying cipher, but the way keys are established is stronger and more resistant to password-guessing attacks.

So, the correct choice highlights the shift from a static pre-shared key in WPA2 to SAE authentication in WPA3-Personal, with the result being stronger protection during the authentication process, even though the encryption algorithm (AES) is still used. The other options misstate the authentication method or the role of SAE.