Feds, industry battle the biggest network bug (The Register)

[Terence McCarthy]

This story (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/25693.html) talks about the ASN.1 problems. To a neophyte of the protocols etc., of the internet it seems worrying: to a computer user the following is frightening: 

"So severe are the potential ramifications of widespread ASN.1 security holes, that President Bush was personally briefed on the matter, according to cyber security czar Richard Clarke, speaking at a meeting of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) last March."

Then:

"With that mandate, Howard Schmidt, FORMER MICROSOFT SECURITY CHIEF (my caps) and newly-appointed vice chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, created a full-time "Cyber Interagency Working Group" in February to examine the government's vulnerability to ASN.1 implementation holes."

Sleep well in your beds!

Terence