Final answer:
WPA uses TKIP for encryption to secure wireless communications, but it has been replaced by AES in WPA2 for improved security.
Step-by-step explanation:
The encryption technique that WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) uses to protect wireless communications is TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol).
TKIP was introduced with WPA as a stopgap solution to the security issues in WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).
It employs a per-packet key system that was significantly more secure than the fixed key system used by WEP.
However, TKIP has been superseded by stronger encryption techniques like AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) in WPA2, the second generation of WPA security.