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Website monitoring throws up security glitch | | 2008/07/10 | | Internet security expert, Dan Kaminsky has discovered a flaw which could allow people to redirect legitimate web users to fake pages even if the correct address was typed into the browser.
The anomaly was discovered quite by accident in the workings of the Domain Name System (DNS), reports the BBC.
Mr Kaminsky said that the situation was unique and unprecedented but added that concern should not give way to panic.
Experts in computer security have since released security patch software to tackle the glitch in the internet's addressing system through industry giants such as Microsoft.
"We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch," Mr Kaminsky said.
"Something of this scale has not happened before."
Had the flaw been allowed to go on unchecked, so called 'Phishing' scams could continue to redirect web users to, for example, fake bank sites where sensitive data such as credit or debit card details could be obtained.
DNS is used to convert written web addresses into the number sequences employed by computers to route web traffic around the globe and the glitch centres around the way that the servers handle the requests they get to translate those words into numbers. |
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