Internet Bug Fix Spawns Backlash From Hackers

Hackers are a skeptical bunch, but that doesn't bother Dan Kaminsky, who got a lot of flack from his colleagues in the security research community after claiming to have discovered a critical bug in the Internet's infrastructure.

Kaminsky made headlines on Tuesday by talking about a major flaw in the DNS (Domain Name System), used to connect computers to each other on the Internet. In late March he grouped together 16 companies that make DNS software -- companies like Microsoft, Cisco and Sun Microsystems -- and talked them into fixing the problem and jointly releasing patches for it.

But some of Kaminsky's peers were unimpressed. That's because he violated one of the cardinal rules of disclosure: publicizing a flaw without providing the technical details to verify his finding. On Wednesday he took things a step further on his blog, asking hackers to avoid researching the problem until next month, when he plans to release more information about it at the Black Hat security conference.