Microsoft to blame for home firewall flaws

NEWS Two personal firewall application aimed have been found to pose a serious security threat for home users. Security experts are warning users of Norton's Personal Firewall and Zonelabs' Zone Alarm Firewall products that a rogue program could steal private user data without being detected by the software. However, Zonelabs told US wires the security flaw was down to Microsoft. The company claimed hackers can exploit a well-known security flaw in Windows called SetWindowHookEx which allows malicious code to be inserted inside another program. Authors of firewall-testing software such as FireHole, TooLeaky and YALTA have posted their findings online and advised users to find an alternative security method to protect their personal data. Both companies have issued patches to fix the flaws and are available on the companies' websites.