Internet flaw could let hackers take over the Web

Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the Web by altering computers DNS settings, and poisoning the Internets major DNS servers all over the world..

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released on Tuesday to repair the problem. It is not known whether the patches actually fix the problem or prevent it from occurring in the future.

DNS is like a phonebook for the Internet. Whenever you acecss a web site using a friendly name like ebay.com, your computer will query its assigned DNS server to translate ebay.com into the actual IP address assigned to ebay.com. Hackers have managed to design viruses and trojans that change your computers assigned DNS server to go to a DNS server they control. This allows them to create fake web sites and trick you into entering user names and passwords giving them access to your personal information and accounts.

Last month we released EZDNSWatch, a free program to help users monitor their DNS on their local computers. This is a very real problem, and we strongly encourage users to download and install this program.

Read the whole story here.