E-Commerce Software Flaw Found

                         E-Commerce Software Flaw Found

 June 26, 1998 11:30 AM PDT

 ****E-Commerce Software Flaw Found 06/26/98 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK,
U.S.A., 1998 JUN 26 (NB) -- By Bob Woods, Newsbytes. A flaw in a type
of e-commerce software protocol could be the key for crooks to decode
Internet-based transactions under certain circumstances, a researcher
at Lucent Technologies' [NYSE:LU] Bell Labs unit has reportedly
discovered.

 The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported the discovery
Friday morning.

 Bell Labs' Daniel Bleichenbacher said that a well-equipped hacker can
decode "the contents of an Internet session protected by the standard
encryption scheme used in most World Wide Web commerce," the Journal
reported.

 The flaw is in secure sockets layer (SSL), which is based on
technology developed by RSA Data Security Inc.

 E-commerce software companies like Netscape Communications,
Microsoft, and RSA, have written and are now distributing a patch for
the problem.

 RSA said that the cracking of the code has so far happened only in a
lab and not in the outside world. In addition, "Due to the large
number of messages needed, the potential attack is detectable by
network administrators," RSA said.

 The news comes at an inopportune time for the e-commerce industry,
which has been trying to convince the public that leaving a credit
card receipt on a restaurant table is more risky than purchasing a
book online.

 RSA's Web site is at http://www.rsa.com .

 Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com .

 12:45 CST

 (19980626/WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL, BUSINESS, NETWORK/)
 © 1998 Newsbytes. All rights reserved.



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