ComodoHacker also refers to an attack on US certificate authority Comodo, which was targeted in March.

BBC: GlobalSign stops secure certificates after hack claim

In the free software market Microsoft faces competition from many others including AVG, Alwil Avast, Avira Antivir and Comodo.

BBC: Microsoft launches free security

The bogus certificates have now been revoked and Comodo said it was looking into ways of improving security at its affiliates.

BBC: Iran accused in 'dire' net security attack

Last week we learned that the authors of Flame, the spyware that has infiltrated thousands of machines in Iran, were ahead of the Comodo Hacker.

FORBES: Flame's MD5 collision is the most worrisome security discovery of 2012

Given that the Comodo attack originated in Iran, some observers have speculated that it was part of an attempt by the Iranian government to find out more about protesters organising via web-based services.

BBC: Are secure websites still safe?

In the new system Google, OpenDNS and content delivery networks including BitGravity, CDNetworks, Cloudflare, Edgecast and Comodo, are adding metadata to DNS requests to give the approximate location of the end user.

FORBES: Google, OpenDNS And CDNs 'Speedup' The Internet

After the series of attacks against Certificate Authorities in 2011 that included Comodo, Diginotar and StartSSL, I was perturbed to see a statement from the Comodo Hacker where he claimed to have completely reverse engineered the Microsoft update service.

FORBES: Flame's MD5 collision is the most worrisome security discovery of 2012