Critical flaw rocks the internet

Computer security experts have worked for months in secret to fix a critical flaw in the internet which would have given hackers free reign to direct unsuspecting web surfers to dangerous websites.

Software and hardware developers released create a software patch yesterday to remedy the problem, Agence France-Presse reported.

Securosis analyst Rick Mogul said it was a fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the internet works.

“You’d have the internet, but it wouldn’t be the internet you’d expect. (Hackers) would control everything.”

The problem would have let hackers route internet users to wherever they wanted, regardless of what internet address they typed into the web browser.

The flaw would have been a boon for “phishing” scams, which involve leading people to imitation business web pages such as those of bank or credit card companies, and tricking them into divulging personal information.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive discovered the problem with the Domain Name System (DNS) six months ago, and reached out to heavyweights including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to find a solution.

Mr Kaminsky said people should be concerned, but not panicking.

“We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch.

“Something of this scale has not happened before.”

Jeff Moss, founder of annual Black Hat computer security conference called it an important day.

“We are seeing a massive multi-vendor patch for the entire addressing scheme for the internet - the kind of a flaw that would let someone trying to google.com be directed to wherever an attacker wanted.

“What Dan’s done is really significant for the entire stability of the internet.”