‘Shellshock’ internet bug has potential to wreak havoc

Hackers have begun exploiting the newly identified "Shellshock" computer bug, using fast-moving worm viruses to scan for vulnerable systems and then infect them.

Shellshock is the first major internet threat to emerge since the discovery in April of Heartbleed, which affected OpenSSL encryption software that is used in about two-thirds of all web servers, along with hundreds of technology products for consumers and businesses.

The latest bug has been compared to Heartbleed partly because the software at the heart of the Shellshock bug, known as Bash, is also widely used in web servers and other types of computer equipment.