On Thursday a computer researcher will reveal a flaw he has discovered in TCP/IP, the basic language of the Internet. He actually discovered the flaw last year. Since the discovery, hardware and software vendors have been scrambling to create patches for their products to mitigate the problem. The flaw can allow a hacker to interrupt Internet communications at will. This could be a very serious problem. It is anticipated that after the presentation on Thursday hackers will know how to exploit the flaw "within minutes".
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a security alert which can be found here. This flaw must be mitigated by Internet Service Providers and router vendors. It has very little to do with individual computers on the Internet.
TCP/IP, the underlying language of the Internet was developed years ago and was not designed with security in mind. It has come a long way but needs to be revamped. Actually, TCP/IP Version 6, the replacement for the current Version 4, is beginning to be implemented on the Internet. Version 6 will eliminate several issues with Version 4. It is just taking too long to get implemented. Perhaps this will push it along!
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