Major security patch issued

A serious security flaw that would allow cybercriminals to take over the internet's addressing system has been exposed by computer experts.

The glitch, which would have redirected surfers to to fake web pages even if they typed in the correct address, was discovered by accident.

Security experts have been working in secret since March on a patch to address the flaw which has now been released worldwide.

Dan Kaminsky, a computer technician, first discovered the security glitch while working on the Domain Name System (DNS) earlier this year.

When surfers type a website address, for example www.webuser.co.uk, DNS converts the words into a numerical sequence that computers can understand.

The flaw would have allowed hackers to "go after your ISP or Google and re-direct them pretty much wherever they wanted," Kaminsky said.

"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking. We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch. Something of this scale has not happened before," Kaminsky added.

A team of computer and security companies including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco worked together to issue a security patch.

Microsoft released its patch on 8 July as part of its regular security update. If you don't have Automatic Updates enabled on your PC, you should visit the Windows Update site as soon as possible.

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http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com