Discovered by PGP Security, a unit of Network Associates Inc., Santa Clara, Calif, The U.S. Defense Department-funded CERT Coordination Center recently warned that a flaw in the software that helps drive the Internet could permit hackers to disrupt Web operations worldwide by changing and rerouting the numeric IP addresses.

BIND is the most commonly used implementation of DNS software. Every organization attached to the Internet depends on the DNS system to allow users to access services. When users connect to web sites, transfer files, or send email, they use domain names, such as "internet.com," their computers, using DNS servers, translate those host names into IP addresses, such as 10.21.30.5, in order for the computers to communicate.

To deal with this bind (hacker threat), the non-profit Internet Software Consortium (ISC), provider of the BIND software, said it will create an exchange to share information about security flaws in the software.

ISC's information service -- slated to begin later this month -- is an attempt to work around that problem by giving legitimate businesses and individuals access to prerelease source code, ahead of malicious hackers.

But one can think if hackers are smart enough to put the Internet in a bind, they surely can outsmart an information exchange. Might there be another solution to this bind?

Well, a Chicago area company thinks so. It claims that a mere fifteen hours after CERT's announcement it solved this potentially disastrous problem and made the solution available globally!

The name of the company is InfoBlox.

Founded in 1999, InfoBlox develops and sells high-performance Server Appliances for Internet and intranet markets. These products are sealed, turn-key solutions combining hardware and integrated software dedicated to performing a single function or narrow range of functions.

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Unlike the majority of network and system administrators now racing to the Web (ahead of those sneaky hackers) to download the ISC's latest, secure version of BIND, InfoBlox says its users simply need to point and click their way out of potential hacker trouble.

Customers of InfoBlox's product, DNS One, are already touting this Domain Name Service (DNS) Server Appliance that is 100% dedicated to domain name administration. And the ease in operability eliminates extensive installation and set-up work for InfoBlox's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Fortune 1000 clients.

DNS One users simply access their administration screen and click one button to install the fix. The solution configures itself in accordance with system specifications and does not require high-level programming or intrinsic Internet knowledge.

Compare the InfoBlox solution to the labor-intensive process many network and system administrators are now facing as they scramble to update their servers:

First, they must log onto the ISC's Web site at www.isc.org , choose the newest (applicable) version of BIND, configure it, and then install it on every server.

"It could take 100,000 companies 5 hours each to install and configure patches from ISC. That is 500,000 lost working hours. InfoBlox took those hours and reduced them to 5 minutes for our customers," said Robert Moss, president and CEO of InfoBlox. "Time is of the essence when your system is exposed to hackers and our equipment allows InfoBlox to handle the network 'heavy lifting' and then make our solution available to any user in the world through the Internet."