Interesting story from AP News about how a TCP vulnerability can muck with routers and PCs...
The flaw affecting the Internet's "tranmission control protocol," or TCP, was discovered late last year by a computer researcher in Milwaukee, Paul "Tony" Watson, 36, who said he identified a method to reliably trick personal computers and routers into shutting down electronic conversations by resetting the machines remotely.
Routers continually exchange important updates about the most efficient traffic routes between large networks. Continued successful attacks against routers can cause them to go into a stand-by mode, known as "dampening," that can persist for hours.
Experts previously maintained such attacks could take between four years and 142 years to succeed because they require guessing a rotating number from roughly 4 billion possible combinations. Watson said he can guess the proper number with as few as four attempts, which can be accomplished within seconds.
