It is increasingly rare for a month to pass without a report of a serious vulnerability in one or more of the technologies that underpin the Internet.

Even products that are not a direct part of the Internet infrastructure can cause huge problems. The SQL Slammer worm, for example, significantly disrupted traffic after infecting only a small number of machines.

Granted, security has improved on some levels, according to Richard Stiennon, Internet security research director at Gartner. "Enterprise security has gotten much better," he told NewsFactor. "Enterprises are protected from the Internet much better than a year and a half ago."

Unfortunately, he added, "The Internet itself is still extremely vulnerable."

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