Internet vulerable to serious attack

As much as 85% of the internet could be wiped out by a simple combination of attacks - according to the latest research from Cornell University.

The problem is due to the way that website addresses work, which relies on a small number of computers around the world - known as servers - to direct surfers to any particular website.

This becomes an acute issue if one or more of these computers does not have up to date security patches applied.

On this issue alone, up to a third of all websites are vulnerable because of poor security keeping on a large number of servers.

However, if combined with simple attacks to knock out the best patched servers, as much as 85% of the internet’s websites could be affected.

The study - which examined 600,000 servers - is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of the internet to security problems.

It also calls on changes to internet architecture, unchanged in over 10 years, to make the modern internet a safer place to surf.

While the statistics are worrying, there remains a firm resolve to redevelop the most vulnerable systems, to help prevent such theoretical attacks in future succeeding.

Discussion: Internet open to attack on DNS