Heartbleed Blug: What You Need To Know
The internet is a big place of information exchanges including sensitive data that needs to be kept secure. Imagine websites full of this information and leaving their ‘door’ unlocked for any hacker to just get in and grab your stuff. That’s the dilemma to an estimated number of 66% of the web. Many websites – even the big famous ones are affected by this bug and in turn may put your precious information at risk.
What is Heartbleed?
It is a web bug. More precisely, a coding error in the OpenSSL cryptographic software library – this is the encryption technology (‘https’ or padlock icon on browsers) used to secure sensitive information on the web which is typically used by any sites that provide their visitors with payment gatewars. Now this bug allows hackers to sneak-in and peek at those sensitive information.
Who is affected?
Most sites that run certain versions of OpenSSL are vulnerable. Unfortunately, a majority of commercial websites on the Internet use this types of SSL as one of their web security measures. Some may have older versions or others may have updated to the latest patch and are therefore secure. However, OpenSSL is the most used encryption technology, used by over two-thirds of all sites on the web. Therefore, it is advised to check if that certain website you are using is affected and is vulnerable. You can use this tool here: http://tif.mcafee.com/heartbleedtest
What should I do?
Well, as an average user, there’s not much you can do. As for the web owners, it is advised to update your OpenSSL to the latest version to fix the vulnerability of your site.
The Heartbleed bug has stirred things up a bit on the security scene in the internet. And if there’s anything we can learn from this, it is that security is key. Always update to the latest versions and always keep an eye out for possible vulnerabilities. As of for now though, we advise you to change your passwords everywhere, especially your main email passwords. This is a few minutes work that could save your entire sensitive information on the Internet.
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