Eideard

A major flaw in the way the internet works could lead to millions of people being targeted by criminals and has prompted the “largest security update” in web history.

The bug – described as “cache poisoning” – has led to some of the technology industry’s largest companies scrambling to come up with a solution before hackers discover how to exploit the flaw.

Dan Kaminsky, an American internet security specialist who uncovered the bug, has been working with major technology companies including Microsoft and Cisco to issue software patches to prevent attacks from working.

“This is the largest synchronised security update in the history of the internet. The severity of this bug is shown by the number of those who are on board with the patches,” Kaminsky said.

The flaw exploits the internet’s address mechanism, known as the Domain Name System (DNS). The glitch allows hackers to inject themselves into the process, intercepting the name entered by the user and mapping it to a different internet address than the one intended.

This would potentially allow criminals to redirect web users to phishing websites even if they had entered the correct address in the first place.

Phew! I hope the good guys get this sorted out before the nutballs and gangsters do.