US government invests in Internet security

The US Department of Defense is to invest $1.4m into protecting the backbone of the Internet against hacker attacks. The contract - which was announced at this week's Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference - was won jointly by Network Associates and the Internet Software Consortium (ISC).

The two agencies will upgrade the routing system of the Internet in an attempt to stop Web addresses being reallocated to bogus sites. In the most famous case of this kind, hacker Eugene Kashpureff rerouted Web traffic from domain registry, InterNIC's site to his own AlterNic site for several days last July.

A Network Associates spokeswoman said that the new Domain Name System (DNS) should be in place in around 18 months' time. Network Assiciates conceded that the current DNS system has severe security flaws.

"We plan to upgrade ISC's Bind database software, which cross-references a site's text-based address with its IP number," she said. "The new verification system will probably ship with Unix servers, and we hope to distribute it freely, worldwide."

She added that Network Associates would need to get approval from US authorities before European distribution could be guaranteed.