Protect Yourself From The Heartbleed Bug

Posted: April 18, 2014

The Heartbleed bug has been in the news a lot recently. It has taken the Internet by storm and caused website security experts to go into a panic. Make sure that your online data is safe and learn what steps can be taken to secure online information.

Ian Paul, writer for PC World, shares what the Heartbleed bug is and how you can protect yourself from it.

Check the Heartbleed Hit List to assure your favorite sites aren't affected.

The critical, widespread Heartbleed bug and you: How to keep your private info safe

No matter how hard you try to stay safe, some aspects of securing your online data are completely out of your hands. That fact was made painfully obvious on Monday, when the Internet got caught with its collective pants down thanks to a critical vulnerability affecting a fundamental tool for secure online communications.

Called Heartbleed, the bug has been in the wild for more than two years now. It allows attackers to exploit a critical programming flaw in OpenSSL—an open source implementation of the SSL/TLS encryption protocol.

When exploited, the flaw leaks data from a server's memory, which could include SSL site keys, usernames and passwords, and even personal user data such as email, instant messages, and files, according to Finland-based Codenomicon, the security firm that first uncovered Heartbleed in concert with a Google researcher.

Read the entire article The Critical, Widespread Heartbleed Bug and You: How to Keep Your Private Info Safe on PC World.