Channelnews : new bug highlights internet security balancing act

The fix follows the emergence of the LogJam bug, which is in the basic design of TLS, “transport layer security”, designed to create secure connections for online payments among other

internet communications, the WSJ reported, meaning all web browsers, and some email servers, are vulnerable. The newly discovered weakness could allow attackers access to online

communications claiming to be secure, with browser makers, which have released updates including the fix or which will soon, ultimately choosing a fix that could make more than 20,000

websites unreachable, the WSJ reported. While the fix is designed to protect the privacy of internet communication, its potential to impact the accessibility of websites highlights the

ongoing balancing act faced by tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple. The emergence of the Heartbleed bug last year threw into the spotlight the potential vulnerability of

internet communications, signalling that websites needing to remain vigilant in implementing the latest security developments. However, amid the ever-growing reach of the internet, the

reality is is that it could be a while before security updates are applied by websites. The potentially fragile balance is proving an ongoing challenge for security experts. “It’s a twitchy

business, and we try to be careful,” the WSJ reported Richard Barnes, who worked on the problem as the security lead for Mozilla, as stating. “The question is: how do you come up with a

solution that gets as much security as you can without causing a lot of disruption to the internet?”