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Defcon reveals dangers posed by hackers to internet traffic

Hackers at the infamous DefCon conference in Las Vegas have highlighted the growing threat posed by cyber crooks when it comes to internet traffic.

Two hackers at the conference amazed fellow hackers after revealing they broke into their internet traffic without them noticing anything was happening.

Tony Kapela and Alex Pilosov revealed their "nearly invisible" method of hacking, which exploits fundamental internet routing procedure to hijack and misdirect online traffic.

In a more worrying revelation, the hackers said the method they used could be utilised by hackers anonymously, as crooks would not need to break into websites or plant malicious computer code.

Instead, the internet can be deceived into sending people's data to hackers, they said: "It's a nearly invisible exploitation," Kapela said, "a level of invisibility that is unparalleled."

"Internet routing is inherently trust based. We told the route that we know the best way to an address. A hacker could blast a lot of spam or launch a lot of phishing attacks."

More than 8,000 people attended the conference.

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