Hackers at Defcon Race to Expose Cisco Flaw

They were told they couldn’t do it, so computer hackers worked throughthe weekend to expose a flaw that would allow someone to take controlof Cisco routers that direct Internet traffic. Computerworldreports that several security experts at the Defcon 13computer-security conference were motivated by Cisco’s attempts tosuppress the news of the flaw last week at the Black Hat securityconference. The hackers said they had no malicious intentions byattempting to hack the weakness, but were only trying to illustrate theneed for Cisco customers to keep their software updated, despite thedifficult process of having to unplug entirely from the Internet duringupgrades. Hackers were unsuccessful as of the end of the Defconconference, but they are hopeful that their European counterparts willbreak through at the hacking festival there. Read more.