After reading articles about the net's latest security problem, I made sure I installed the Microsoft update. Result: I could not access any web pages until I rolled my computer back, at which point everything was fine. Jane Knight
The bulk of this week's mailbox came from Zone Alarm users who lost their internet access following last week's Windows Update. The update was part of a net-wide security effort led by Microsoft, Cisco and Sun to deal with a fundamental design flaw in the Domain Name System (DNS) discovered by Dan Kaminsky. The DNS translates memorable names (eg, doxpara.com) into the numbers used to route traffic (eg, 66.240.226.139). Anyone who can control that can send visitors to almost any site they like. Basically, hackers could take over the web.
The project involved patching or upgrading many of the net's DNS servers and routers as well as server and PC operating systems, and it went astonishingly well. Zone Alarm seems to have been the only major failure, and the company quickly produced a patch. If you don't have that, a workaround is to set Zone Alarm Internet Security to "medium".
However, Zone Alarm users should uninstall Windows Update KB951748 from Windows XP, restart their PC, apply the Zone Alarm patch from download.zonealarm.com then reinstall the update. KB951748 can be uninstalled using the Add or Remove Programs applet after ticking the box at the top that says "Show updates".
The problem could affect products from more than 80 vendors and potentially all operating systems. Kaminsky has put a DNS checker on his website (doxpara.com) so that people can find out if their DNS server is vulnerable.
