Drown attack: how weakened encryption jeopardizes 'secure' sites

Researchers warn sites such as Yahoo, BuzzFeed and Flickr would be susceptible to attack, and credit card info, passwords and other data could be compromised

Security researchers have developed a method of attacking 'secure' connections that can be used to intercept and decrypt information being transmitted to some of the world's most popular email, news and entertainment services.

The researchers, made up of a team from public universities, Google, and a number of groups devoted to the development of open source projects, say the attack relies on a flaw in an old piece of encryption technology.