A critical vulnerability, affecting multiple vendors, has been identified in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used for Internet connections, mainly routing infrastructure including networked operating systems and network equipment. However, experts say the problem is being corrected and isn't that big of a deal.

"It is a design flaw of TCP, so it is as old as the Internet," said Alan Paller, director of the Bethesda, Md.-based SANS Institute. "The folks at the core have been fixing their systems for about four weeks. For me, the bottom line is that the sky is not falling."