WARNING... Heartbleed Bug: What You Need to Know A bug known as Heartbleed is making major headlines. Heres what it means to you and the steps you can take to minimize potential harm. What is Heartbleed? Heartbleed is a security flaw that affects the technology called OpenSSL that is used to encrypt websites. These websites usually begin with https and have a lock next to the URL. The Heartbleed bug could give attackers access to the information that was entered on a website, including user names and passwords. What websites are affected? Roughly 2/3 of active sites on the internet use Open SSL and could be vulnerable to attacks. However, most major sites acted quickly to fix any vulnerability and ensure the safety of their website and customers. If youre wondering if a particular website is safe or still vulnerable you can check using this tool, which has been recommended by security experts: https://filippo.io/Heartbleed/. How to Protect Yourself To check other websites: The best thing to do is to confirm that a website is safe using the tool above, and then change your password. Yahoo, Google, and USAA are just a handful of the sites urging users to change their passwords. The safest bet is to change all of your passwords. While it may be time consuming to go through this process, its a great time to set up a password manager (like KeePass) which will save you time in the long run. More Information USA Today: usatoday/story/tech/2014/04/09/heartbleed-five-questions/7501033/ Mashable: mashable/2014/04/11/mashable-explains-heartbleed-2/ Security Expert Bruce Schneier: https://schneier/blog/archives/2014/04/more_on_heartbl.html
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 01:02:54 +0000
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