Jack Louis died in the early morning of March 15 of smoke inhalation during a fire in his home in Karlskrona, Sweden. He was 32. Prior to his death, he had discovered a half-dozen vulnerabilities that could be used to attack computers via the Internet, using what's known as a Sockstress attack.

The attack could allow a low-bandwidth computer to knock very large servers off of the Internet by attacking the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) software used by systems on the Internet. Although technical details of the attack have not been disclosed, it could be targeted at routers, servers, and even firewalls.

"These vulnerabilities have been around for a long time, and to the best of our knowledge they have not been used in the wild," said Robert E. Lee, the Outpost24 researcher who worked with Louis on the issue, and who had frequently presented with Louis at security conferences and training sessions.

Lee has had to step up to fill in his colleague's shoes following the death. "It's been rough," he said. "Jack's been a very close friend and business partner for the past six years. We did everything together."

The Finnish , (CERT-FI) which has been coordinating work with the many vendors who must patch the issue, says it expects to see patches by year's end.