Which of the following is a major security issue of WEP?

WEP, or Wired Equivalent Privacy, is widely recognized as an insecure protocol for wireless communication primarily due to its vulnerability to various attacks. The major security issue with WEP stems from its weak encryption mechanism. It uses a short key size (typically 40 bits or 104 bits) and relies on static keys, making it susceptible to key recovery attacks. Tools are readily available that can exploit these weaknesses, allowing attackers to decrypt the WEP traffic relatively quickly.

In a practical sense, this means that a determined attacker can intercept and analyze WEP packets, eventually gaining access to the underlying data being transmitted. This substantial vulnerability renders WEP unsuitable for secure wireless communications, leading to its eventual replacement by more secure protocols, such as WPA and WPA2.