Next time you click 鈥渟end鈥 on an e-mail, how sure are you that it will go
where you want it to? Hackers now have the means to re-route Internet traffic or
crash servers by exploiting a flaw in a computer networking language called
Simple Network Management Protocol. On the Internet, SNMP is used to remotely
control pieces of hardware such as routers and switches, which pass data between
different networks. But according to the US Computer Emergency Response Team,
hackers can 鈥渃onfuse鈥 the recipient hardware by making simple programming
changes to SNMP messages, either crashing it or allowing unauthorised users to
siphon off Internet messages.
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