Hackers defy firewalls

The discovery of a major internet flaw that left Australia's large organisations vulnerable to hackers should serve as a reminder that firewalls offered insufficient protection, a security provider said. Global security provider Internet Security System (ISS) said around half the nation's government departments, financial institutions and other big organisations were shoring up their defences against hackers after the discovery of two major areas of vulnerability in the popular Checkpoint firewall, one of the world's largest computer security buffers.

Managing director Kim Duffy said an Australian member of his company's X Force team, a group of more than of 200 internet security researchers with headquarters in Atlanta USA, had recently discovered the weaknesses in the Checkpoint firewall.

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