Release of computer code of web attacks sparks fear among net-worms

Computer code used to mount one of the biggest web attacks ever seen has been released online.

Security experts fear the release will prompt more massive attacks that knock sites offline by swamping them with data.

The attack tool seeks out smart devices in homes that are weakly protected with easy-to-guess passwords.

Net monitoring firms said they had already seen an increase in scans that seek out vulnerable devices.

The “Mirai” source code was released on a widely used hacker chat forum over the weekend.

The same code is believed to have been used to target security blogger Brian Krebs in late September in an attack that pointed more than 620 gigabits of data every second at his site.

Mr Krebs said the release “virtually guaranteed” that the net would soon be flooded with similar incidents as it made it easier to mount such large-scale attacks that abuse access to the consumer gadgets.