There’s been quite a bit of chatter over the last couple of days about a major flaw in the way the internet operates that could expose potentially literally millions of users.

It has been much reported in the BBC and Washington Post and other websites and relates to an issue discovered by Dan Kaminski (see his blog at http://www.doxpara.com) and the Domain Name System (DNS). Each and every internet address is represented by a unique ip address, but in order to make accessing the site more easy, there is a gigantic ‘phone book that enables the site to be found by a name – this system is called the DNS.

Dan Kaminski had discovered a potential exploit contained under the bonnet of the DNS system that could hijack legitimate requests and re-direct innocent users to malicious websites – he’s managed to get the major vendors of operating systems to patch their products simultaneously and fix the problem – a first!

However, what also is in the news is a piece of research from the Swiss Institute of Technology about the surprising lack of awareness by users in terms of keeping their internet browsers up to date – the worst cuplrits being Internet Explorer users. In their research only 47% of Internet Explorer users kept their browsers updated, compared to 83% of Mozilla’s Firefox.

In conclusion, if you are keen to ensure you are protected in terms of data security, something in which the FSA is becoming increasingly interested, it is essential to keep your systems updated using the free mechanisms available from most of the major software providers.

I read with interest the recent Datamonitor report on IFAs’ use of Technology¹.  In particular I read with continued concern about the slow pace of movement to performing policy enquiries online.  In their research, Datamonitor found only 31% of IFAs had made any policy enquiries online in the past 6 months.

When Datamonitor probed further, over 59% said the reason they still used the phone for enquires was the amount of information they can get via the phone is perceived as more while 32% cited the reliability of the information they receive online as the key issue.

This implies that there is still work to be done by providers in both enhancing and marketing their policy enquiry systems before take up is increased.  Only then can the industry as a whole (for it has to be as a whole to be sustainable) benefit from the potential economies of scale.

¹ Datamonitor – financial advisors views on technology – May 2008