Huge hack 'ugly sign of future' for internet threats

A massive attack that exploited a key vulnerability in the infrastructure of the internet is the "start of ugly things to come ", it has been warned.

Online security specialists Cloudflare said it recorded the "biggest" attack of its kind on Monday.

Hackers used weaknesses in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), a system used to synchronise computer clocks, to flood servers with huge amounts of data.

The technique could potentially be used to force popular services offline.

Several experts had predicted that the NTP would be used for malicious purposes.

Read BBC Article